Lover's Mania
by Hector Flores
Summary: A life of military service was the only thing he knew, losing his faith, losing his life, he must now fight to make a new life for himself but is he crazy enough to fall in love?
1. Chapter 1

This is a Youjo Senki Fan Fiction Only.

To those that wish to send negative comments, please be more descriptive as to the way you have it, and not simply decide to state your hatred of the story in shall in a colorful vocabulary.

I was born in a very military family, I would not exaggerate to say that every member of my family has been in one form or another in a military at one point in their lives. If you are wondering which nation did they serve, the only thing I can say is to pick a nation, any nation and more than likely I had a blood relative serve in its military.

From the royal guard in Egypt to the Crusades and beyond, my family thus had a unique air about them, since we could form our first word, children in my family were expected to follow a rigid code of conduct, hierarchy and command structure, most people would call their parents mother or father, to me they were my superiors, my commanding officers, failure to accept and follow expected discipline would lead to harsh punishment, as my four dead members of my unit would clearly demonstrate.

My current unit is stationed and serves the arm forces of the United States of America, I was born as my commander and his second in command had celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of the formation of their command.

I was schooled in regulation, law, math, science, protocol, arms, weapons, strategy, languages and of course armament maintenance and heavy ordinance. To present I still remember on my ninth year of being with the unit a fond memory, you see this was the year that I was issued my very first firearm, granted it was a simple single shot, low powered lead pellet shooter, but as I was expected, I maintained my weapon in perfect condition.

This rigorous training, however, had as my fellow students, as they would say had negative consequences, I actually attended a public school most of my formative years, still don't know why, but I was not in a position to argue or question the orders that were given to me by my superiors. I asked permission to use force to avenge the slander that these civilians decided to cast upon my superiors, but they always said that it was simply not worth the effort.

As I reached my eighteen years I enrolled in one of the military branches available, I say I enrolled but then again my superiors had made quite a few comments as to which branch they themselves found would better suit me, in my effort to meet their expectations I did join the Marine Corps.

Every moment was spent in uniform, nothing new to me, but many of my squad complained about it constantly, to me it was simply another reason why I should be thankful for my upbringing, their constant complaining and whimpering always made me feel sick to my stomach. Every moment I was either doing something as ordered, supervised others, or I studied.

Thanks to this I was slowly gaining the notice of those in higher ranks, and after ten years I was allowed to enter officer training, this did not sit well with others in my battalion, some say that I was using family influence to advance higher in the chain of command, which was of course ridiculous. I received promotions due to my ethics, hard work, and efficiency.

The one thing that changed in me as I moved higher in rank was that I stopped praying altogether, I sort of figured that it simply would not do for me to spend time asking God for his aid in my military career, if I am to rise in rank it should be by my own effort and not depend on religious figure, which quite obviously was not within the chain of command that I was a part of.

Today is my twenty-seventh year, and now having reached the rank of Captain I been placed in charge of a unit of my own, I must say that I found it rather touching that all the people in my unit began to shed tears as soon as they heard I would lead them, to be touched by my assignment of them was rather an unexpected and touching scene.

I must make certain to avoid such sentimentalizes in the future to maintain a distance with my unit and be able to properly lead them. The other reason I stopped praying came when I realized that my life actually came into conflict with one of the ten commandments I once tried my best to follow, thou shall not kill.

Was I not supposed to kill? What am I supposed to do? Subdue my enemy, capture him or her and take that enemy as my prisoner? That is simply idiotic, on the best I waste resources to keep the prisoner alive, and at worst I risk the possibility of having said prisoner escape and give the enemy information that would put others in my battalion at risk, it was simply unthinkable for me.

I was thought by my superiors since early in my life a simple and easy to follow protocol when dealing with an enemy, even when engaging in virtual training this would always apply, you see an enemy, you kill that enemy, you do not sympathize with the enemy, you do not empathize or show that enemy other than your determination to end that enemies' life. One shot, One kill, no exceptions allowed.

The faith said that if I broke one of the commandments I, in fact, broke all of them, and since that one commandment was one that I would break even as a reflex, this means I really should stop praying all together and even attending mass. So I stopped, most of the congregation called me insulting remarks, such as me being called an Atheist, that was certainly not true, I knew there was a God, but I simply could not follow his commandments because my very life would put me in a situation where I would have to break them, continuing to even go to that church would be unethical at best and hypocritical at worst.

As an officer I had the opportunity to offer guidance and even attend in quite a few marriages, the fact that most of these marriages ended in absolute failure continued to show me that my decision to focus on my constant effort to ascend the ranks was indeed a much wiser decision, even those the soldiers in my unit often made comments that were disrespectful when they thought I was not listening.

Today is probably one of my best days, I am standing on the platform, waiting to go to meet my commanding officer, for days they have been mentioning that another promotion could be in my future, much to my battalions clear discomfort it seems, I could not be happier at knowing that I would obtain the rank of Major.

This would be a wonderful opportunity for me to be given higher responsibilities, to have a position to better lead more soldiers and serve my county, I simply was so happy that I had a very hard time containing my emotions, the simple joy of it was something that I truly struggled to keep hidden and contained.

It turns this was a mistake, I had forgotten to pay attention to my surroundings, and thus gave the chance my second in command was clearly looking for, honestly that Lieutenant I told him time and time again to think things through, to weigh his options, but sadly he was not such an efficient subordinate, I do believe I sent a report on his many inadequacies to then Major, now Colonel.

I digress, it is said that hindsight is perfect, never realized that I would see this in my current situation, my subordinate decided to push a loading cart in my direction causing people to trip and causing me to fall face first towards the rails of the very subway I was going to board. As I was sure that I would meet my doom, time seemed to come to stop. That is when I began to feel something different, something was not quite right.

" _John, I am truly disappointed in you. In your youth you had such faith in me, you were a truly ethical and righteous follower of my teachings, but somehow you have abandoned me, what was once a faith stronger than a mountain, now you have so little faith it makes me wonder if you truly believed in me at all."_

I can't believe this, I am seconds away from my death and God decided to talk to me, but only to express his displeasure at my actions, I knew that he hated me, but this is just a bit too much.

"How could I maintain believing in your teaching, if your teachings contradict or prohibit my life. I have been trained since I could speak to be a soldier, a warrior, a defender of my nation, and your commandments say that I should not do the very thing I knew to be correct my entire life."

Somehow my body was moved till I saw the faces of the other people on the platform. _"I have commanded armies before, to punish the wicked, you may lie to others John, but I know everything that is you, I knew you since before you were born, I have known you to know the number of hairs on your head. Do not lie to me, you stopped believing the second that you realized that I would not help you ascend in the ranks."_

I saw a woman speak, but her voice was that of a man, _"I am a fair god, thus I could not give you any more help than I provided for any of my other children. You stopped praying as to say that you do not acknowledge me because I did not meet your expectations, you don't need me so you do not worship me. I find this to be deplorable."_

And old woman looked at me with the same sneer, _"You who once worshiped me, I came to realize that it was false, and you have no faith me at all. It was your attempt to deceive me, to lie to me while wearing a mask, I can accept that, my lost lamb it is the time that I as your shepherd show you the way back to my flock. I could do that, but I realize that I already have so many people depending on me that I have no need for someone that has no real faith in me."_

I looked next and a rat was looking at me, _"You believe that you do not need me, well I have decided to make you realize how much you need me my lost lamb, I have decided to put you in a situation where you are at risk, I have decided to make an exception for you, you shall have no more reincarnations if you die from anything other than old age, these trials shall give you reason to appreciate my blessings, and your faith in me shall truly appear."_

As he spoke those words everything went dark for a few seconds, one minute I was falling to my doom and now it seems I am looking at the ceiling, why can't I move, I have to try and see what is happening, I moved my arms and next thing I know someone is pushing the contents of a spoon in my mouth.

"Now, now Karl, you don't need to be impatient, I swear you are such a handful, I know you are hungry, but the food is not going anywhere, so be a good baby and calm down, there, where everything is alright, god will always look out for us, his children."

I don't know what is happening, this lady is treating me like a newborn, I am being fed the worst tasting slop I ever tasted in my life, and that includes field rations, and she dares mention GOD! He is the one that put me in this situation in the first place!


	2. Chapter 2

This is a Youjo Senki Fan Fiction Only.

In the first five years of my new life, I was raging mad, the orphanage was small, dirty, and could barely keep the kids in it alive, let alone well fed. I had the basic knowledge I gained from my education in my previous life, a life of experience as a soldier. I was painfully aware of my options.

These options were severely limited by first the way I was reincarnated into my new life, as far as I been told, my father was a soldier in our glorious empire, but he was not what you call a very efficient or able soldier, and died in his first deployment, he just had to have too much to drink and got himself and five other people killed.

Dear mom was devastated to find that her husband died in such a way, I mean play with explosives when he was as drunk as he was, it was a miracle that he didn't cause even more of his fellow soldiers to die. Her depression led her to heavy drinking, and I imagine she died beaten to death as a prostitute.

My new name is Karl, Karl Sturm. I am shall we say not in the best of moods, and quite frankly I am angry enough that if anyone and I mean anyone ever decides to insult me, I would very much try to beat the living daylights out of them, but then again with this body of mine that is not going to happen. The mind is willing but the body is not able.

I knew that I could teach these nuns to grow food in such efficient ways that this dump of an orphanage could turn into a place that saved the Empire, I could teach them why cleaning their clothes and why boiling their water could prevent plagues that could end up killing millions. I could teach them that through careful use of resources this pitiful orphanage could save the lives of thousands more abandoned and discarded children.

I know I can, I could tell them all these things, and it would prevent wars and bring an era of peace and prosperity, a true utopia, except these things, would never happen. I was a child, a child who could barely walk in their eyes, they would never listen to me, at best I would be seen as a delusional child, bordering insane and simply thrown in an asylum for the rest of my life. That would be about five years if I was lucky.

At worst I would be beaten, told not to put on airs, and what I said was just stupid childish daydreams, if adults who were better educated had not figured all this out already, what could a half-starved punk think he could do? I would be just another brat trying to put on airs to gain attention from the people that I saw the closest thing to parents.

I know that god pretty much knows my faith in him is not exactly the best, but I guess with little to nothing to do, I decided to at least try to have a conversation with the man, even if the conversation always was one-sided. The nuns at the very least liked the fact that I spent so much time in the chapel.

"So you decided to turn my life into this? I know I could do things for these people, but to be honest why even bother, nobody listens to kids, nobody takes what children say as serious, it would be no better than shouting at a wall, or talking to your idol for that matter. If the goal was for me to beg and plead that you give me any help, the other orphans here have shown me that is a meaning exercise."

"If this situation was supposed to make me appreciate you more, well it has only reinforced one feeling in me, and the longer I live in this orphanage the more that feeling is getting stronger, my growing hatred of you. You could make all suffering, all illness and pain vanish with the flick of a finger, yet you do nothing."

"You said I was the lost lamb, that you as the shepherd would show me the way, well when the shepherd is either away or asleep, the untended flock gets eaten by the wolves, and I am no helpless little lamb, and I will show you how little do I need a lazy shepherd like you!"

I heard someone say Amen. That is when I saw a young girl, very much the same age as me, clapping, and I mean clapping like she heard the best speech ever, "Until someone else realized the same thing I always knew. So nice to find someone like-minded in a dump like this, and the sisters think you are just so faithful to the Lord."

She walked up to me and I could tell this girl was probably another victim like me, another soul ripped from another time and brought down here to what I came to call hell. She stood in front of me and smiled. Her blonde hair, blue eyes, I could tell if this person actually had access to some basic nourishment, she could grow up to be quite the beauty.

"So besides looking at me like I am a piece of meat, a little disturbing for a five-year-old to do, I am guessing you ended up here the same way I did, I was a person in charge of human resources, my job was to get rid of the dead wood in my company. I only obeyed the rules that I myself had to live under. An enraged employee killed me for firing him and a being I can either call God or the Devil did this to me, I imagine something like that happens to you too."

I looked at her and wish I could say that it was insane what she told me, but for some reason, I simply did not want to lie to this person, a comrade, someone that had this happen to them, possibly the only person in this entire world that knows what I feel.

"Pretty much, God told me my faith was lacking, I told him what I thought of him and then he told me, I would not reincarnate unless I died of old age, and then sent me to this dump. My prospects of dying in my golden years don't seem that good. I think we are the equivalent of Germany in our world."

She looked at me and began to smile, "Not only that, we are clear before the first world war. The lack of food, the horrible conditions of this orphanage, the way our supposed parents in this life I would guess you were abandoned too, so what do you think will happen, take in mind my knowledge is that of a salaryman, business is my field."

We sat down on a bench together and began to nod my head, "Mine is military, my guess is that this country is a militaristic nation, since I imagine your father was a soldier and died like mine, as the situation gets worse force conscription is going to be implemented, and for kids like us it's heavy labor, more than likely in one of several resource gathering activities, which mean an early death for us both."

She looked at me and began to nod her head too, "I see work to death in a coal mine would be an example, the nation would not even shed a tear if a couple of orphans died for the national best interest. So tell me, what do you suggest?"

I looked at the ceiling as I leaned on the backrest of the bench, "Adoption is out of the question, when couples have a tough time to feed themselves, they would never consider taking another mouth to feed, you must be kidding, we have only one option when it comes to our future, that option will not be pretty."

"We are clearly in a world where magic is an everyday thing, I have seen enough books talking about it scattered in the rooms that house the nuns, don't look at me like that, I volunteered to do some light cleaning to get that information. So what we can do is simple, we train our bodies as best we can with the limited resources we have."

"When the military comes to test our abilities, we stop holding back and we knock their socks off, we pull all the stops, to make them be so impressed that when we offer to voluntarily join the military they will jump at the chance. As far as the people in the orphanage, get up, do something or die, I am not wasting my time on pathetic whiners. So what is your name they call me Karl Sturm, and you?"

She looked at me as she crossed her leg and used her arm to rest her head, she actually smiled, "Tanya Degurechaff, I agree, we have little in the way of food and other resources, and you are right, if we can get high enough of a position, or a rear line position, then we have better chances to live to old age than simply waiting in this dump."

She got up as I did, and she was smiling at me, "So this is the beginning of our partnership, just so you know to get in my way and you will not survive it if we work together, I expect you to pull your own weight." That at least saved me the trouble of having to make that threat myself, like I said it was nice having someone that felt like I did.

I knew that Tanya was as defenseless as she was, but I had to test and we began to fight each other, to my surprise she knew some basic strategies to basic combat, not that many but some, at least I could get started teaching her some close quarter combat tactics that she otherwise would never see as a civilian.

The sister came into the chapel screaming for us to stop fighting, and we should get along. Tanya looked at her and then at me, "We were just trying to find out which of us knew better to defend ourselves, sister it is a dangerous world, some maniac may try to kidnap us to do some horrible things to us, I was worried Karl might not know how to defend himself."

She looked at me and wiped the sweat off her brow and looked at us, she stepped in between us and then we were looking at her back as she held her hands in front of the idol. "You do not need to worry children, no maniac would do you harm here, we are protected from harm by the mercy of the Lord. Have faith in his divine protection and know that he will always watch over us."

I was about to say something when she hit my stomach with her elbow and with a finger told me to stay quiet, I get the feeling she knew that I was going to tell the nun exactly what I thought of her Lord and his protection. It roughly consisted of me saying he could place it where the sun doesn't shine.

As we both agreed that we had to keep our physical and other training secrets we decided that we would volunteer around the orphanage to do more and more difficult things, to help the nuns since there were so many things that needed to be taken care off and the sister were overworked. This made the nuns so happy that they began to give us a little extra as a way to thank us for our hard work.

The labor pretty much at first consisted in carrying things, later we began to help in repairing things that would break around the orphanage and as time went by we did more and more difficult and hard things. This was not done as a charity however, this gave us plenty of chances to steal a little bread here, a few apples there.

We always shared the spoils and we worked together more and more, I got the feeling that either she found me useful or that she actually considered me her friend. We made plans and talked about our options when we were supposedly cleaning the chapel and praying, that is another thing that we agreed on, you would not catch us praying unless our life depended on it.

After five years, I still can't believe it took the military testers a grand total of five years to get to our little orphanage, I somehow think the superior mother had something to do with this delay, guess she did not want to lose her two favorite slaves, I mean helpers.

The tests consisted of some verbal tests, some written, and finally a physical skills test. The verbal tests were a pathetic joke, it involved us trying to answer some questions that an elementary school student in our previous life could answer, they revolved around questions that deal with our devotion and loyalty to our nation.

The written test involved with our ability to read, write and do basic math, I began to bust out my math skills and I say they were pretty impressed that a boy my age knew how to do college-level math. Like I said to Tanya I was not holding back on these tests. I aim to impress and so far that is what I did.

The physical tests I passed without even trying, most of the work we did around the orphanage pretty much made it easy to pass their physical test, the last was a little weird, they placed a metal cap on my head and gave me a crystal, told me to imagine that I was flying with my eyes clothes.

I did as they told me, I took the stone and closed my eyes, I began to imagine that I was levitating, and I began to really feel my magic energy, as I did, I began to feed the stone more and more, the feeling was exhilarating, I opened my eyes and everything around me began to float and I began to concentrate harder till only I was floating, had it not been for the lousy cables connecting the metal cap to the machine I could have taken off and I could try to fly.

The man looked at me as he touched the rim of his glasses, "I know you are enjoying this a lot Karl, but we have other children to test, please stop what you are doing and come on down." I did as I was told and looked at the man as they took the metal cap off me, "Yes, Sir, I hope that these results are to your satisfaction."

I dropped into a salute and waited till he told me I could leave. As I sat down outside I began to hear what the men running the tests were saying, "That is crazy, the kid is no older than my kid brother, but he got even better scores than some of the soldiers, hell the kid did a salute that most of our privates have a hard time pulling off."

Well at least I managed to impress them at the very least, I wonder how Tanya is doing on her test if they didn't divide the testing by gender I could have been there to see her test. Almost all the other kids my age failed the physical test, some managed to make a spoon levitate but for only a few seconds.

"So Karl, I take it from your smile that you did exactly what I did, blew their sock off right? It will be not too long before they asked to meet with us, I guess they will interview us individually not to let each other influence our response." I told her they can interview us together and save time since we both pretty much wanted the same thing, get out of this dump, become high ranking officers, and secure our survival.

It happened just as Tanya had said it would happen, "Karl Sturm can you please come in here." I said yes, sir and I entered the room, as I walked I saw Tanya give me a rather sarcastic smile, I guess I really have gotten used to her since I can pretty much understand what she was saying from something as little as a smile.

"Karl we are impressed with your examination, and we are certain that in the future we will be able to recommend such a bright young man be admitted to one of our prestigious universities. Your answers to the written and verbal portion of the exams were better than we expected from someone your age. So tell me Karl what do you want for your future?"

I looked at the men and did as I knew, "Sir, I request permission to speak freely." The two men in front of me began to laugh until they realized that I was not joking, they told me that I had permission to speak my mind and stand at ease.

"Sir, I would like to volunteer to enroll in service of our glorious Empire. A University education sounds wonderful, but I will not accept such a thing unless I prove to our glorious Empire that I am deserving by willing to dedicate my life to the protection and security of our beloved Fatherland."

They both looked at me with a worried look on their faces, "Karl, you are still young, if you don't mind me asking, why would you volunteer to join the military, you don't know how harsh the life of an imperial soldier is, why don't you wait till you grow older, you can still enjoy your childhood if you are adopted."

I began shaking my head as they said that, "If the situation in the world was more secure maybe, but seeing how little things we have, this means people don't have much to spare to donate to this orphanage, and in such cases donation is a luxury most couples can not afford, no sir, you said I had a choice, and you are correct, my only choice is to enlist sir, given my surroundings and personal history, this is the only option that I am willing to take."

One of the men looked at me and began shaking his hand in front of the paper in front of him. "What do you mean by personal history young man, please clarify," I told him my father was a man that believed in serving the Fatherland so much that he died doing as such, would it be so strange that his son would wish to follow in the footsteps of his own father?

They had already filled the paperwork, and I saw that they were going to recommend me as a mage scout, without any hesitation, I began to sign the papers as I was told where to sign, and initial where instructed. I was told to wait outside, and that all new cadets would be taken to processing as soon as everyone had finished their interviews.


	3. Chapter 3

This is a Youjo Senki Fan Fiction Only.

 _A.N: For those that want a story where Tanya is a pacifist, cute, friendly and adorable._

 _I have a simple suggestion, look for another story, this is war, pacifist has a lifespan of goldfish, and those that write reviews, please be a little more specific and detailed why you think this story is a pile of you know what._

 _Nothing will motivate to continue to write this story more than your wonderful colorful, and emotionally driven reviews and those that post a review already thank you._

Well we had such good scores that we were assigned to train to be officers, too many of the people training with us, this was the closest they been to hell, the physical demands, the high expectations from our instructors, the rigid discipline of life at Officer Candidate School was not as easy as some of them figured.

I had another experience and feeling to the entire thing, I could honestly say I felt wonderful, the demands become more and more difficult, the instructors screaming at us to do better in such a sheer display of passion and unrestricted aggression, I could only describe it in one way, I was home.

I loved every second of it, compared to the orphanage I was truly at home, the food, however, was some of the best I tasted, and after eating what the orphanage called food, this was a feast. I would finish my studies and I would often ask our senior instructor if I could get in some target practice or do a few more reps in the gym.

He simply told me that as long as I took care of everything that was required of me, I could, during my free time. I took care of everything as efficiently as possible, for some odd reason Tanya was sleeping on the bunk bed next to mine, and during my hours of night watch, I had taken the hobby of actually reading.

Reading what you ask? Why regulations, of course, a good officer should be aware of the rules and regulations that he and his subordinates must follow. "Honestly Karl, you look like someone told you this was an amusement park. I am having a hard enough time as it is, but you look like you truly are enjoying this."

I put down my book and looked at her, I couldn't help but to smile, "I don't know what you mean Tanya, I guess this place just feels rather homey to me. I had to deal with much tougher demands a long time ago, why it feels it was in another life. With you being so perfectionist I would never imagine that you would be having trouble with this?"

She looked at me and she was scowling, I knew she was a little upset, I guess she still doesn't like the fact I call her a perfectionist. "Look, Karl, if this is not hard for you, pray tell, when do you think we will face a real test of our abilities." I put down my book and looked at her, "I imagine when the war starts. Most of these guys have never seen real combat, a true baptism by fire I would imagine."

There is an old saying about how time flies when you are having fun, I guess it is true, because in less time than I care to admit we actually finished our training, twelve weeks of fun, learning, and enjoyable activities go. I told one of the guys that I wish they actually extended it for at least a year, he turned around said that I was clearly suffering from a mental defect.

At my graduation I can say one thing, I found one guy I will not be saving his life even if he begs, if I am a defect then he should be able to take care of himself. "Say Tanya are you looking forward to the mission we will each get assigned as much as I am?" She looked at me and began shaking her head, "No, I actually want to be assigned to a nice and quiet support position, but I somehow think Being X would not let that happen."

As each name was called we were given a very nice piece of paper, it was our assignment and our first mission, it appears that since all officers who graduate are untested, they are given a rank as a warrant officer, as since I was assigned to be a mage. I was given the mission to go to the northern border and patrol for the possible invasion into our territory, by an enemy nation.

It might sound exciting, but it really is nothing that exciting. It simply is fly as high as you can, to look at the area assigned and report any enemy to the artillery unit in the area. I swear this assignment made me think I was a security guard, I know they don't exist here, but doesn't mean it doesn't make me remember that from my previous life.

Well, it was not all negative, Tanya was assigned and since there was no enemy in sight, she actually was pretty chipper about the assignment, a lot happier than me. I was hoping that at least my abilities were tested, well I guess I shouldn't look at it the wrong way, as long as the Empire is safe, I should be happy with his, the mission was going to be rather easy to complete.

I thought that until I kept looking at a segment of the forest close to the border, it had a pretty nice road, and that is when I began to see several hundred men clearly marching down the road, and they were not wearing Imperial uniforms, in fact they had the flag of the nation that was north of the Empire.

"Norden Command, this is Hawk 8, I found enemy movement on the northern portion of the border close to our northern borders, I am calling for an Artillery barrage one 10 miles north and one 5 miles northeast of my current position. Recommend Incendiary shells."

Tanya looked at me and began to shake her head, "They don't have those yet. Norden Command what my fellow warrant means is heavy bombardment, I do confirm at least one Batallion that are from the Entente Alliance."

I keep forgetting they don't have incendiary rounds, I was just so focused on eliminating the enemy I forgot they have not developed that yet, I do have to admit I thought that a nice enough of a forest fire would pretty much kill most of them, if the fire and falling debris from the forest doesn't do the job, the smoke inhalation would certainly help.

"Acknowledged Hawk and Pixie, keep observing enemy troop movement."

I looked at Tanya and began shaking my head, "It is too much to ask for something that can blast a few hundred enemies to ash in a few seconds? I have wasting time, the only good enemy is one that is either blown to pieces or ashes in the wind."

She looked at me and also began to grin at me, "Yes, you still need to remember that the current year is 1917, they consider shotguns illegal, and you want them to have artillery shells that pretty much behave like napalm on impact? Besides, that is why mages like us exist in the first place, and there aren't that many of us to actually load those artillery cannons with spells to do that."

"You know Karl, you always struck me as a kind, considerate, and very sociable person growing up, whenever the sisters had to ask for some help you always volunteered, even if it was something that other boys would throw up doing. It just strikes me as odd that you have no problem with setting a few hundred yards of pristine forest in flames to eliminate the enemy."

I kept looked as the shelling began and began to notice that the enemy troops where not as dumb as I first thought, "Damn it, they scattered to save their lives, guess they are not that dumb after all, or it is basic survival instincts, Norden Command enemy has scattered into the surrounding forested hills, one is 15 degrees west correct for altitude by 12 and the remaining group 12 east and have found a small undergrowth to hide in."

I stopped looking at the enemy and looked at Tanya, "I don't know if I am any different from back then, all I know is that they will more than likely figure out that we are up here directing these shots, and they will more than likely send at least one mage hunter unit after us."

She looked at me and realized, "So you wanted to eliminate the enemy in such a way they would be scared enough to retreat before they figure we are up here scouting their locations? I have to admit that would be nice, but not going to happen, I have an idea what we are going to end up doing, what do you think we should do?"

I looked at my bolt action rifle and saw that it was properly loaded, decided to attach a bayonet to it, turns out it was not such a bad idea, I should really thank Tanya for reminded me of that later, if we survive.

"The second they start to interfere with our communications, then we know they are pretty close, an entire mage hunter unit against the two of us, I would tell you that we should pray, just to get you in the right mood, but other than that, we fight till reinforcement come, if we manage to ask for reinforcements that are."

She looked at me and began to shake her head, "Yes, I imagine they will be no less than half or a dozen of mages to hunt us down, Norden Command, request a flare to be shot one hundred feet from of location towards the forest area we have told you the enemy was."

As the flare was shot it looked like a small version of a firework, and as it descended I saw why Tanya asked, damn it, the mage hunters were already looking for us. As soon as they realized that they had been spotted they came towards our position as fast as they could, they were using mage gear that looked like horses from a merry go round.

"Norden Command, unit of mage hunters confirmed, requesting reinforcements. I repeat a full mage hunter squad confirmed, awaiting further orders." I looked at Tanya as she said that and we began to put a little distance between us and them, they began firing and I knew that asking these idiots to surrender and stop this international incident from getting worse was impossible.

My shoulder was graced by their fire a few times. Tanya looked more and more upset as she clearly was hearing something that was not good for either one of us, she unstrapped the communication pack form her and let the thing fall towards the ground. The minute that she picked up her rifle, I knew she was going to tell me something that was not good, the smile on her face told me it was really not good news at all.

"Reinforcements are coming, but they will need 10 minutes to reach us." You have got to be kidding me, 10 minutes, I could cook instant ramen and eat it in that much time. From the way she was biting her lip, I knew she felt the same way.

"If the reinforcements are inbound, they will simply ask us to buy them enough time for them to arrive, so retreat is not an option, and here I was thinking this mission was going to be boring. What do you think we should do Tanya?"

She told me to follow her lead, as we got closer to them they began to look a bit confused not realizing that we were both pushing our gear to the most we could get out of it, we kept going higher and higher until we had a significant high difference enough that they could not follow.

" **ALLIANCE FORCES, WHY ARE YOU INVADING OUR FATHERLAND? IT IS MY DUTY TO INFORM YOU THAT YOU ARE INVADING OUR NATIONAL BORDER, I SUGGEST YOU SURRENDER IF YOU SURRENDER YOU SHALL BE TREATED HUMANELY UNDER THE TREATY OF WORMS."**

Why bother giving them the chance to surrender, they know they have us currently outnumbered, and they probably know that our situation is not that good, not that they would even consider give us the same opportunity to surrender like she did, no by the looks of it they wanted to do to us, what I want to do to them. Isn't mutual understanding a wonderful thing?

"Well Tanya they don't look like they are surrendering or plan to take up your kind offer, I am kind of glad they are not truth be told." I began to load Artillery spells in my rifle and looked at her and then at them.

"I am so happy that I am practically drooling, **WE GET TO HUNT DOWN THE ENEMY OF OUR BELOVED FATHERLAND, WHAT HONOR, WHAT JOY, COME ON TANYA, LET'S GO, IT'S NOT POLITE TO PLAY WITH OUR PREY."**

She honestly began to laugh like an absolute maniac, but then again who am I to judge. **"YOU ARE RIGHT KARL, WE GET TO FIGHT AND DIE FOR THE FATHERLAND. IT IS A GOOD DAY TO DIE!"**

We both turned around and began to fly towards them as fast as we could Tanya killed three of them using just her bayonet, her small frame gave her plenty of maneuverability to evade and get into close quarters combat, me, not so much, I went and fired a few shots to caused them to evade and when they were close enough I began to blast them, it was easy for me, a few shots to lead them where I wanted and another shot to finish my prey off.

The battle quickly began to turn against us when I could feel my Observation Orb begin to get a little warmer as the fight went on, the stress of constant using my magic was getting to be too much for it, and the heating told me it was close to overheat, I suspect Tanya was having the same problem.

She came towards where I was and I saw the cracks on her orb, and she saw the ones that I think we're on mine, even if we threw the orbs at them as makeshift grenades, the altitude was such that if the enemy didn't kill us, the fall would.

I was wrong it was not a single mage hunter squad but two of them. "Tanya, it was an honor to fight with you, a joy to have met you, and I think we could have been good friends. The situation does not look good, I don't know about you, but if I am about to die, I say we take the enemy with us."

She saw me hold my rifle and she looked at her own and she began to nod, "It is odd that we often thought alike, it was an honor for me to Karl, too bad, we might have had some fun but you are right, if we are to die, let's do so in defense of our Fatherland!"

We both it seems we had the same idea we few towards the center of their formation and we both shot our last bullet, I loaded every bit of magic I had into that one last shot, there was no point in trying to conserve, I might as well load it all in that shot than to let it go to waste.

As we both fired at the leader one of the squads we took a deep breath and detached our orbs, the shot went through the orb causing them to blow up, as I felt my body burn as it rushed towards the ground, I should have known better than to expect our enemy to put us in a fair situation.

I know Tanya as far as she told me it was a man in her past life, and I know that it should be something I found myself kicking myself for ever thinking it, I don't know why it is taking me this long to hit the ground and become yet another smear on the surface of the ground, but since I had some time, my friend may be a guy in her other life, but she was rather cute in this one, what a waste.

I felt the pain and knew my life was over, next thing I heard was this annoying clock, this ticking that made me want to bash the clock to pieces, the fact that I could feel something on my face and half my body that made me feel itchy was not helping, wait for a second, shouldn't I be dead after the fall the very least?

I opened my eyes and I saw the white of the ceiling, I began to try to move my hands, and realized that for some odd reason I was strapped to a bed, I have to admit after the bed I slept in the orphanage this was a rather comfortable bed, who am I kidding, a pile of hay would be better than what I slept in the orphanage.

"Well let's keep positive shall we, I survived, wonder how Tanya is doing. I must be in a military hospital, which means the reinforcements dealt with the enemy and we got transferred to this hospital for immediate care. On the negative I don't imagine our superiors are going to be too happy we ended up like this."


	4. Chapter 4

This is a Youjo Senki Fan Fiction Only.

I seem to recall something of a rule, if something can go wrong, it probably will, just as I said that three officers came into the room, I was in no position to salute, damn it, am I glad my parents would never see this, I can still remember having to clean every toilet in a building with just my toothbrush for doing something like that.

"Actually the only thing I would be angry is that you two ended up causing two orbs to blow up, you do realize these things may be small, but they are not exactly cheap. Not that I rather have you or Degurechaff die and leave your orbs intact for the enemy to capture. I would also not like to be the one to explain to the Emperor how one of his relatives ended up committing suicide to buy time for their reinforcements. Why didn't you tell me that you were noble Second Lieutenant?"

I was not happy to hear that, I did manage to learn quite a bit of my supposed father's lineage, and even that some of his relatives were in fact in favor of adopting me, the sisters felt such preferential treatment was unfair so they never gave them the chance.

"My father was never recognized as a noble, officially at least, he was an illegitimate child born from the many times a noble decided to have fun with the young women of lower social status. I was only informed after I asked the Mother Superior. Seeing he was never recognized as far as I knew, I thought it was unnecessary to mention it. I apologize that I can not properly salute or the grief I might have caused, sir."

He clears his throat and I swear I could feel someone trying hard not to laugh, I don't know why I feel this, but I can sure feel it. "No need to apologize, you and Degurechaff have done a valuable service to the Empire, and delayed the enemy long enough for reinforcements to deal with the invading forces."

"Your actions cause two compressed explosions that ended up killing most of the invading enemy, your fall was not as severe large in part to the fact that you fell on the remains of the enemy and the forest that you two ended up destroying. Before you ask, yes, I called you Second Lieutenant, not Warrant Officer because it was decided that since you both were willing to go this far to buy the reinforcements time you both received a field promotion, you would have known this had Tanya not decided to let go of her communication pack."

I wanted to tell him, that it would not matter, the enemy were blocking any communication signals to get through anyway, but I decided it would be more prudent to keep my mouth shut. "As you ended up saving the lives of the Artillery unit, and we have confirmed that you have killed five enemy mages, while Tanya killed four, High Command has decided to also award you both the Silver Assault Badge."

I felt something being placed near me on the mattress, I guess this is them placing the medal near me, damn it, they are doing this to take a picture to raise the morale of our troops, propaganda in other words.

"As such we have informed Degurechaff of this and have told her of her second name, as such we also are here to inform you of yours, we have assigned her Pure Silver as her second name, and yours is Radiant Gold."

This would make any other soldier happy, so happy they were in tears, I wanted to cry truth be told, but not for the reasons they probably thought, I was furious, raging mad would be a close description of my current feelings, the last thing I need is to be dressed up and paraded around like a showpiece.

I rather am somewhere was I could be of service to the Empire, somewhere where I could put my combat skills to better use than be paraded in a constant pooch and pony show. "As such as soon as you two have recovered enough an official ceremony shall be held to award you with the medals and record your second names for prosperity."

No sense in telling him anything else than I would be honored, and grateful for the allotted time for our recuperation. I know Tanya has told me she was a man in her life before being reborn as she is now, and the fact that they will more than likely place her in a dress for this ceremony did not go unnoticed by me, in fact, I think Tanya will find this insulting.

I know for a fact that if they did that to me, I would be even angrier than I am right now. Why do the higher ups need me to be used as propaganda, duty alone should cause our troops to do their very best for the Empire, and I am no hero! I am simply a person doing my duty as expected.

Now if you want a hero, I know of one, he was the cook at our last camp, that guy was a hero, he even manages to make K-Brot edible. I am not saying that it tasted good, it was good enough that I didn't feel like throwing up after I got done eating it.

It took the medics two solid weeks to get us ready to be discharged from their care, and that is when they took us to the ceremony, you have no idea how hard it was for me as I saw the clothes they provided for Tanya, it consisted of a skirt, blouse, and a hat, they had been quite liberal with the use of cosmetics, and I have to admit, they did wonders with that hair of hers, she didn't even have that usual cowlick.

If I was dumber than I was, I would say she looked beautiful or cute at the very least, but as I knew better and I wanted to retain my ability to procreate or simply stand straight, I didn't say a word about it, I knew that the second I said something that stupid, Tanya would kick my family jewels hard enough that they would end up in my throat and I would be choking on them.

"So Karl, are you as happy as me to hear that we are getting assigned back to the front lines? Knowing you, you practically are jumping for the joy of it. Honestly Karl how can you be so for a lack of a better work giddy about going back into combat?"

I was not about to take this comment from her, "And you aren't happy that you don't have to wear makeup, gowns, and uncomfortable shoes? I am not going to hide it, I love the rush I feel when in combat, I love the feeling that every second is precious and I must make every second worth it or I might die."

I continued to clean my rifle as we sat on the train compartment, I figured since this is magic, I might try to do something with my new observation orb, try to use magic on my rifle, if this is magic, transformations, and enchantments should also work in this universe. First I changed how much the ammunition capacity of my rifle, a single bullet could mean the difference between victory or an early grave, I modified my bayonet to act as a retractable blade, and in some circumstances, it could act as a support during sniping.

The real magic was when I tried to figure a way to enchant a simple monocle and made it into for a lack of better terms an auto-tracking sight, the thing with magic here is that I never realized that it was so easy to figure out how to modify or come up with new ways to use it, honestly I think it, a little work and it's like the magic makes whatever I think of just happen.

I kept on working on it, and by the end my rifle must look rather odd, but since we have been sent to the Rhine my new modifications and enchantments would get plenty of chances to test them out and correct any errors I might have made, true trial and error in a combat situation, how can I not feel happy about this?

"You know Karl, I know that you are happy dreaming of your next slaughter of enemies, but I hate to tell you, but the train has stopped and we need to get off." I took my bag and began to follow Tanya, I know Tanya was once a guy, but do I get the feeling that she is upset that I spent so much time working on my rifle and not that much time with her.

We both decided to look for the place we had to report, and I looked at her, "You say that now, but which of us do you think has the highest body count between us? I just hope Vlad is here, you think if someone else is the cook here, or do you mean to tell me you want to taste bread that feels like you are eating sawdust again?"

She stopped and kicked me right in my right leg, "I told you at least a thousand times, I don't want to remember our days in the orphanage. For your information, they didn't have enough flour, so they did put in sawdust into our bread."

She looked at my monocle and she began to shake her head, "Mind telling me what is the deal with that thing? What exactly do you hope to get done other than looking like a total snob."

I looked at her and smiled, "This thing will make it easier for us to survive, I decided to pull something I once read in a fantasy book, this piece of junk has an enchantment to help target the enemy, the enemies of the Fatherland shall have no place to hide from my wrath, not even hell shall provide them with refuge."

I finally saw the tent where our commanding officer was and pointed it out to her, we walked into the tent and saw that there were a few officers talking, more than likely strategy and status of our current situation.

"Sir, 2nd Lieutenants Degurechaff and Sturm reporting for duty!" The man looked like he has been years in the military service, but he still had a bit of kindness in his heart, or at the very least he was extremely able to make others think he did. He told us to come closer as he smiled and pointed at two chairs.

"I acknowledge and welcome you two, relax, we are having a hard enough time without letting formality make the situation worse, after what you two pulled in the Norden Border, I am glad they decided to deploy you under my command. I am not going to mince words our situation here in the Rhine Valley is bad, we are outnumbered and we have been in a constant battle for god know how long. This Valley seems more like a large graveyard than anything else."

I looked at him and indeed I understood what he was saying, "We will do everything in our power to protect our beloved Fatherland, I think from what I managed to hear coming in, the first thing we need to secure are our supply lines, it seems the enemy wants to delay or outright destroy them."

He looked at Tanya and began to smile, "You would be correct Derugechaff, it is as you say, what I would like is a solution to that problem, what do you think we should do about those units aiming to leave us without supplies?" I had an idea but I knew it would be risky, a suggestion by someone with so little military history would not be easily accepted or implemented. I also knew that cowards don't like long.

"I would need one artillery unit, three mages and the help of Degurechaff and I can scout the targets, once we have the coordinates of the enemy artillery, and enemy soldiers we can begin our attack, at the very least we would need to eliminate their artillery and ammo depot, this should give us enough time to receive reinforcements or mount a counter-attack."

I touched my monocle as he began to touch the map on the large table, "And if I don't have that an artillery unit available or the mages? What would you do then?" I looked at Tanya and could not help but to smile, I knew exactly what I would do if that was the case, I would throw caution to the wind and let loose.

"If that is the case, I would suggest 2nd Lieutenant Degurechaff stay here as back up, and I will attempt to deal as much damage as possible on my own, the enemy Artillery and Ammo Depot will be destroyed even if I have to do it myself, and die to try. As long as these two remain the enemy can shell our supply line and make the situation even worse for our fellow soldiers."

I swear Tanya is looking at me with this funny look on her face, "So what exactly am I supposed to do while you go around having fun? Don't even deny it, I can tell you are basically loving the fact that you got an opportunity to let loose and rain fiery hell on the enemy."

I looked at our commanding officer and then at Tanya, "Actually what I would suggest is that you plan the counter-attack, once we take care of those two targets, the enemy will be in disarray and such a perfect opportunity to gain an advantage on the enemy, we might even capture some ground."

Our commander looked at me and then at Tanya, "How long till you destroy your target Sturm, we will need a means to tell when your targets have been dealt with." Tanya began to shake her head as he looked at me, I couldn't help smiling. "I wouldn't worry about that sir, the large explosions of the Ammo Depot will pretty much tell us when he is done with both targets."

He looked at the map and then at me, "That sounds like a good plan, very well Karl you are to deploy immediately, just remember they also have mage hunters on their side, if you feel that it is too much, retreat with your men, we will reorganize our efforts, at current I will take any noticeable damage on the enemy as a blessing. We really are not in the most favorable situation right now."

I touched my monocle activating the enchantment and I took off, soon two others began to follow behind me. I could see the enemy were largely in the trenches, if I could know where the was any tectonic instability, I could cause a major earthquake and bury them, but no luck.

I decided to his the Artillery Unit first, the soldiers were pretty much wondering what I wanted them to do. "Very well men, your job is to act as my bodyguard, buy me time, and while you take care of any enemy ordinance that comes our way, I will deal with the artillery unit."

I loaded one bullet into my bolt rifle and looked at the enemy, "Ye who are silent, from the ages I call you, may fire and brimstone come and rain upon our foe, let the fires of Gehenna become my sword and strike at our foes." I began to feel the magic fill the bullet as I finished saying that, the monocle told me exactly where to hit the enemy and when I pulled the trigger a flash of red and the sound of that followed was not of a rifle being fired, but of horrible beast howling as if they were rushing to devour their prey.

The bullet split into four and each hit exactly the place where I had wanted and I saw through the monocle, this made iron begin to burn and the smoke of the wreckage was causing the enemies to apparently choke as they died trying to breathe. "Well that takes care of one target, we need to take care of one more."


	5. Chapter 5

This is a Youjo Senki Fan Fiction Only.

One of my subordinates decided to come closer to me and she even pretended to clear her throat so I guess some things never change. "Vicktoriya if I don't want to hear that we should be merciful from you, I don't care that the idiots expect us to go easy on their munitions depot because of the place they put it in."

As I looked at the depot through my monocle I could see that the idiots actually placed their arms and munitions inside what looks to be a rather large children's hospital. I could see no less than a battalion inside the building, along with several dozens of wounded or sick children.

In another life, I would feel like this was a war crime waiting to happen, but I was no fool, I read every regulation, every law regarding combat, within the Empire and those that are respected by other nations or should be respected. It is clear that my decision was within the laws, be they national or international.

"They think they can use a hospital as a munitions depot because we would take it easy on them, for the sake of the injured or sick patients. As long as that depot exist, or those enemy are alive, our people will suffer. For the well-being of our soldiers and the safety of the Empire, we must strike."

"You want to blame anyone blame the idiotic enemy, they are the ones using children as a shield. The second they decided to turn that hospital into a munitions depot, that thing became a legitimate target. If your conscience troubles you, then think of it this way, I gave the order, and thus I will carry the same of this act on my shoulders, but make no mistake people, that thing will be rubble before Second Lieutenant Degurechaff."

They did look troubled, but since I told them I would bear the burden of guilt that seems to ease some of their minds. As soon as we were closer to the hospital and they were within firing range I told them to target the support beams of the buildings as I mentioned them. Looks like my monocle can even detect the munitions if I concentrate hard enough.

"Alright, you each have your assigned targets, load Artillery Spells and open fire, I don't want a thing in that depot to survive, we are not taking prisoners, and there will be no survivors, show no mercy to the enemy, FOR THE FATHERLAND!"

As I said the men under my command began firing, my aim was in another place altogether, the place that looks to be the barracks of the enemy. "May the winds of the underworld carry my malice, may the fire of hell come down on my foe, become my blade and strike them down."

A single shot came from my rifle, a small projectile that for some reason looked in my monocle as a small green skull, and killed all the birds in the path to the enemy. It hit and the entire side of the building began to be covered by strange green miasmas, and as soon as cause their munitions to explode the gas began to burn and cause the entire hospital to catch flames, the flames were accompanied with the screams of the dead and dying.

The entire hospital was as I said, nothing but rubble in a matter of a couple of seconds. Even the grass around the hospital seems to have died. I guess an attack during the night was the best option. We managed to kill off most of the enemy in the area and now we just had to return to the designated meeting point.

Viktoriya was looking at me with a bit of hidden anger and fear as we flew towards our meeting with Tanya and her men. All in all the two targets were taken care off and I call that a mission success. I guess the only horrible thing about it was the death of those children, and the fact that Victoriya is probably going to hate my guts for the rest of my life.

When I met her she sort of reminded me of my old high school girlfriend I once had, like I was thinking the more things seem to change, the more they seem to remain the same. That Vicky broke up with me once one of my classmates found out what I did for fun during my weekends. Even to this day, I don't see what is so wrong with being into weapon's maintenance and shooting a few dozen times at the local shooting range.

As we got back and we saw the troops under Tanya's command I saw her fly towards me. "I guess by the look on the face of the only lady soldier with you that the targets have been taken care off. So tell me, Karl, what happened to make her look at you like that? I will tell you a secret, some of my men think she actually volunteered to go with you because she has a little bit of a crush on you."

I began to reload my bolt rifle and looked at her checking the sights. "Well if she had any romantic feelings for me, they are pretty much dead by now. The enemy used a children's hospital as a munitions depot. I gave orders that pretty much caused the entire thing to burn down to the ground, and since it was at night, well there were no survivors."

"She probably thinks we could have given them a warning, but be honest Tanya do you think they would be moving the children if we gave them the chance? No, they wouldn't and we both know it, they would be securing their munitions and arms."

As we flew back to our commanding officer I was ready to get yelled at and even demoted truth be told, but Tanya was smiling for some reason, she was really smiling like it had been a good day, this is war, there are no good days in war, well except for me, I managed to send a message to the enemy, hopefully, they will think twice before using children as a shield again.

As we went into the tent of our Commanding Officer, we both saluted him. "Second Lieutenants Degurechaff and Sturm reporting sir, all mission objectives achieved, my unit managed to route three mage killer scout groups, and Sturm managed to eliminate the Artillery units, and the Munitions Depot."

The man looked at me and I took that as a sign to tell him what happened on my side, "The Artillery units are fussed, they will not be operational any time soon, unless they want to use them as scrap metal, the munitions depot was built inside a children's hospital, my men may not be happy, but we completely destroyed the depot, I will take blame and punishment should there be any for this decision."

The man began to look at me and honestly I expected him to bunk me down in rank, but instead, he began laughing. "You do not need to worry about me or high command Sturm, I see nothing wrong with your decision. I value the lives of our countrymen more than of the enemy, be they children or adults, this will give us a little more of a breathing room, and the situation will not be as hard for our men, job well did you two, well done indeed. Now you two, go have something to eat and turn in for the night, you two deserve a good night's sleep, I know I will sleep a lot easier with those Artillery Cannons and that Munitions Depot took care off."

Well now the only thing I want is two things, I know that after this you would agree with me, a bath and a few hours of sleep, I am not going to say nice because who am I kidding? We are sleeping in tents and in conditions boycotts would be complaining and crying to their mothers. I guess I also want to shoot the first idiot that expected to sleep in a camp like this was the same thing as sleeping in a classy hotel.

As I get undressed and wash my self-clean as well as I could, that is when I hear something I was not expecting at all, "That is the soap, and the other bottle is the shampoo." Why the hell is Tanya in the same place I am trying to take a bath? Then again this is Tanya we are talking about, why am I surprised? It's not the first time she had done this.

"I was using the soap for everything to leave you a bit more shampoo for you. Call it being considerate to my dear childhood friend. Can you wash my back? Or should I go without that since I can't see if you are holding a dagger." She began laughing and hit my back with her open hand.

"Like I would kill you, you have no idea how happy you made me when I heard from the soldiers that went with you what you did! I am not kidding, I was laughing my head off, you basically said prayers to hell and the devil on a battlefield, what a way to stick it to Being X. Aren't you surprised I am willing to take a bath with you?"

I just finished throwing some water over me, before I decided to wash her back. "What is so surprising about it? You told me way back when that you are the reincarnation of a guy, a salaryman no less. As far as you are concerned it's just two guys taking a bath. There, your back is done, and you are welcome."

I jumped into the water to soak a little to relax my muscles and she decided to join me just after I finally got comfortable in this field bathroom that our people made. I would think this was an open-air sauna if there was no roof truth be told.

"I think that it is rather nice of you to treat me so casually, be honest with me, what do you think of Viktoriya? You know you can tell me anything." I wonder if in his other life this guy was actually gay, why would Tanya even want my opinion on something like this.

"I think that if there was no war, she would make a great bride for some guy, she has the cute looks, she is developing a rather nice figure, she will certainly become quite the beauty if she is not considered one already. I think she hates my guts and probably thinks of me as a monster at best or the son of the devil at worst."

Tanya began laughing and I was simply trying to relax my aching muscles to even care to comment on that. "Or maybe she has feelings for you, and seeing the guy whom she is attracted do something so barbaric shocked her." Ok, this is getting weird, and not in a way I ever experience with another guy.

"Alright Tanya, this is weird, I knew you for quite a bit, and you never showed this much interest in my feelings before what gives? You told me you were a guy in your previous life since you want to know so many things about my private life, here is a question for you, are you sure you were not gay in that previous life?"

She splashed my head with water from a bucket and began laughing, "Wasn't the rule back then don't ask, don't tell? I am just concerned about my poor celibate childhood friend that is all." And I was just nominated to be the next pope, like I am going to believe that from her, especially after everything we been through.

As I got up from the water and decided to wrap dry myself off, I felt something odd, it was almost like someone was watching us. I don't think this someone is a person that I would expect, not human at the very least. I was about to put on my underwear when everything just froze.

Alright, I only know of one person who would freeze reality like this, and knowing him, he wanted to have a word with Tanya or a lecture for me. _"How very perceptive my child, I was not expecting you to realize that it was I, to answer your question it is a little bit of a lecture for you both, you both have to disappoint me in different ways but equally as offensive."_

Again I could not move at all, let's just say standing like I was, it was not what I would call dignified. I had been pulling up my boxers, so being frozen with my ass hanging in the open is not something I found comfortable. "I should have known you were a pervert Being X, and you wonder why I am so disappointed in you in my previous life."

" _ **SILENCE!**_ _You have disappointed me in your lack of faith, you still refuse to accept my existence and worship me like you should. What must I do to make your faith grow in me salaryman? You, on the other hand, have done something even worse, you did offer prayers to alright, but instead of praising me you praised the very ruler of the underworld with your little chants."_

" _I have given you a chance for a second life, I have given you a chance to prove yourselves and to spread my faith among the people, but instead, one of you refuses to acknowledge my existence and the other mocks me. What must I do for you to have proper faith like all my other children?"_

Well, my attempts to show my dissatisfaction have not gone unnoticed that is always a plus. I am a soldier born and bred, he wants me to fall on my knees and worship like I was nothing more than one of his sheep, I am a wolf, you do not ask a wolf to become a sheep, we may dress as a sheep but it is always to hunt better.

'You want me to worship you, then make it so that my life is not a constant contradiction with your religious teachings. I told you already, the way I live my life breaks your laws by me existing. My situation is far easier than trying to get Tanya to believe in something she does not think it even exists.'

I waited to hear his retort that I had to obey or something, even some yelling on his part but nothing came, 'I told you I don't need you, My friend here and I are doing just fine on our own and with little help from you. Why should we give you our prayers when we receive nothing from you or need anything from you? What have you done for us? For me you do nothing, and for my friend there, you deny his existence by making him follow rules he can not follow.'

" _I see you both want my aid, you both need proof of my benevolence before you start to have faith in me. I had not thought that I needed to for a lack of better terms buys your praise and faith in me. I see that the situation I sent you has not made you change at all. You do not see why you should praise my kindness, well you have given me much to think about, and soon you will see why you indeed should praise me and only me."_


	6. Chapter 6

This is a Youjo Senki Fan Fiction Only.

You think that after I blew up a hospital, fused their artillery units into things they could not use as anything other than a paperweight, that these idiots would get the message, invade the Fatherland and you signed your own death warrant, and I would be very happy to carry out the said execution.

Two weeks and we had not a single moment of rest, we had been constantly been deployed, I am not kidding here, the only time we are not fighting is either when we need our computational orbs replaced, eating, or sleeping. In these last two weeks I think I filled a moderate size graveyard, and if someone was doing a business out of a potential funeral, I deserve a cut on the fortune this idiot would be making.

I have the sick feeling that this is all Being X's fault. As such, I decided to continue what I did in the previous missions before he decided to talk to me and my friend. I decided after 50 confirmed kills to my name, that to hell with it, I was going to sing to take care of the boredom, this was worse than shooting fish in a barrel.

I decided to get even on Being X by singing what I think is his least favorite song, a song by Voltaire titled when you are evil. Viktoriya had this look of utter pity in her eyes as I looked at her as I picked off one enemy after another. I guess she feels pity for the idiots that I was killing, well she certainly is a person that should not be here at all, she is too kind-hearted, it is liable to get her killed.

I guess I should not be so hard on her, someone had to feel pity for the idiots I was sent to deal with, and by that I mean to end their lives. Tanya finally decided to fly right next to me as I shot another artillery spell at a bunch of idiots in a trench, it causes the earth around the trench to shift and they ended up buried alive.

"Karl could you please change the song you are singing, I get that you like it and all, but you are butchering that song, you are singing of tempo and off key. Why not sing something easy like Paint it black?" I could not help but to shake my head as I shot another bunch of idiots.

"Everyone is a critique. I just hope that Being X is listening to my lyrics, I swear that bastard is doing this to us, I want to take a bath damn it, but if he expects me to pray to him to ask him to let us take a bath and show mercy, well he can go ahead and drink a pig's urine as wine, that is not happening, and after this the longer we fight like this the less likely it is I will develop any faith or gratitude towards that thing!"

She touched my shoulder and I could feel her sympathy with the way she was patting me on my shoulder, "I get you, buddy, you have easy fights, I know it's boring, but at least we are doing our duty for our beloved Fatherland, you can at least be happy about that. Look if that thing could understand human thoughts, we wouldn't be in this mess, to begin with, you are sort of preaching to the choir here."

I began to throw my rifle away and decided to use my magic and get a new one, I swear that after ten shots my rifle is liable to blow up, and as I let it go and it hits the ground that is exactly what my old rifle did, some idiot enemy thought that they could claim it, he and three of his friends got caught in the blast.

"I sure hope these weapons are cheap to make because at the rate I am burning through them, it would make me worry about running out of replacements." I began to take aim and sure enough like ants they began to move in rather easy ways to predict, could be lack of intelligence or mere panic.

"What is the problem with your rifle Karl? Most of us are fine with our Mondragon, but you seem to be burning through them almost like you are doing it on purpose." Now I felt insulted by this remark, and it was even worse when it was coming from the least expected place, Victoriya, of all people, the lamb that was right next to me decided to tell me this as I shot an enemy mage out of the air.

"Is like being asked to carve out a statue from a block of rock, and then being told use the tools provided, and the tools are made of wood. I will manage to make the statue as they ordered me but since the tools can't handle the job, I will end up breaking a lot of chisels and hammers by the time I am done. It is not what you might call cost effective."

Tanya for some reason began to laugh as I finished saying that, "So you are frustrated by the wasteful expenditure that could have been avoided, by say providing you with a chisel and hammer made of stronger material, say metal. So tell me what would you change about your defective tool to make it more cost-effective for you?"

I took a look at my rifle and sure enough, it was about to blow up yet again, I threw it away like the other ones and got a new one before I placed it in a way that it was easier for them to see. "Large Caliber could contain my magic a lot better, and I could load magic better since I could take care of a task with a single shot rather than several. Sturdier Barrel to handle the extra power and weight of a larger size bullet, and a way to stabilize myself so that I can focus on enemies at longer distances."

"The negative is that this would lower my rate of fire, but with the aide of the men under my command acting as shields in case the enemy managed to come into range, I believe I could take care of our objectives in a more speedy and efficient manner."

Tanya saw what I managed to do with my usual rifle and began to laugh, and I mean to laugh so loud that even though the noise of battle I and the people around us could hear her. That is not as easy or quiet as you might think, explosions, shots flying towards us, people screaming from all around the area, laughter should not be something that is easy to hear, but we could hear hers.

"So Karl, what exactly would make you happier having?" I looked at my rifle and I looked at her, I touched the barrel and I could already feel the damage of the stress my spells were causing. I decided to shoot my last artillery spell with that rifle and sure enough, it flew five feet to the left of the intended target.

I tossed the rifle as it began to emit fumes and sure enough, thanks to me augmenting my muscles with magic, I managed to get the rifle into an enemy pillbox before it blew up. "Well, it is not like we can simply ask for it, and get it simply because we asked, the top brass has to consider more than the desires of a low-rank officer like me. But since you asked, I would say a sniper rifle, something that can damage a tank, a good sight wouldn't hurt, but my monocle can be good enough."

She looked at me and began nodding her head, "I see, I see you want to get the enemies before they can even spot us, not a bad idea, I think I can put together a proposal to make it clear that giving you the rifle I think you could use, would save the Empire money is the long run, if only to stop having to replace your rifle every ten shots or so."

As the enemy was destroyed we were given some time to return to our encampment, eat, rest and recuperate. My meal was not the first thing on my mind, it was trying to get a new observational gem before my current one explodes. This is a little better than my rifle, but it is still too fragile for me to actually cut loose and fight with my all.

I know that some of the men with my comment that I am a monster, but let's face it, they never been able to see me fight at my max, these people saw me pretty much using only half of my power and that was diluted beyond anything I could accept as actual effort. I got my jewel and decided that I should skip the meal in favor of a bath and an early night.

As I was ready to go to sleep, I felt someone grab me and begin to pull me out from where I was resting, and for a second I thought it would be Tanya, but no it was Victoriya of all people, she was pulling me up and if I didn't let her, she was liable to pull my arm off. What gives this woman the right to do this to me?

"We got an early reconnaissance mission tomorrow, and I need to adjust my gem. For your sake, you better have a damn good reason why you decided to interfere with my sleep. So ladies mind telling me what is so important that you needed to pull me like this?"

Victoriya knew I was not kidding, and for some reason, I knew Tanya was not far away from where she was standing, "Oh, come on Karl, is this the way to thank us for preparing a little snack and be worried about you going to bed without eating anything? I know from our childhood how grumpy you get when you are hungry."

For a second I looked at the piece of food, and for a second I wanted to throw it out of my tent, and be left to do what I know must be done. For a second the notion of throwing in pieces and letting animals take it, even came to my mind, but that would be disrespectful, and ungrateful, I am many things but never that.

I ate the piece of food with a little water and I thanked them both for the kind gesture, as soon as I did, both of them began to smile, Tanya was smiling like she had own and Victoriya was smiling a smile I do not believe I ever saw on her face before, almost cutesy, almost shy, not the sort that you expect from a person who had seen the hell that is combat.

Indeed, I began to feel better and my magic seems to feel like it was restored somewhat, I began to look at the gem that I been working on since we got back to the camp, and I began to think if there were ways to make this thing handle my power better, if I didn't do something, I might as well stop calling it an observation gem, and call it a bomb that I strap to my chest each time I fight.

The design could not be more Germanic even if I tried to ignore the emblem on it, since fixing this thing was beyond my ability, especially with my lack of tools and knowledge on its construction, I began to do something to take my mind off things, to draw, I simply would return after each time I went on patrol and began to draw ideas I been having, for rifles, for ways to make the gem more sturdy, even on the gear we used to fly around with, I kept doing this for an entire two months, and it did help to release some of my stress.

Combat near the Rhine was something that had no end, it felt like you were stuck in hell and this place was your eternal punishment, I saw dozens if not hundreds of young men die, and the fighting gained us not a single mile, but in contrast, we did not lose any ground either. If I had to describe it I would say it was a tug a war between two groups.

We advance a few hundred feet, and the next day we lose the same amount, we were stuck, and I hated to see my countrymen die for what some might think it is nothing. I know that was not the case, we were defending the Fatherland, but it is hard not to lose hope when facing something like this.

My fifth month and one quiet afternoon while doing some paperwork regarding resupply orders, I am not going to lie, I didn't like the paper at all, consider it at most time a waste of time since our supply line know what we need and what we use the most by now, so I was not in the best of mood when these two idiots came to talk to me.

Now you are wondering why do I consider the two men idiots, well they were men that are under my command in the squad I lead, so they tend to be more back up than anything else, I tend to try to keep the enemy as far away from my squad as possible, you would think that having me would pretty much guarantee to raise the chances they might actually survive, well these two men were not happy about it.

These two men could not be more the stereotype even if they tried, which they didn't have to, both men were blonde, blue eyes and both were complaining about the same thing, I kid you not, they were both complainings about the lack of action, that is right these two men were complaining that I didn't put their lives at risk needlessly.

"Sir, we would like a transfer to a more combat oriented squad, maybe even get a position to work with Lieutenant Degurechaff, we are not racking enough of a body count working in your squad, sir." I am not happy to hear this but I decided to let them know that this was not done without considering all strategic options.

"Gentleman, while yes, you don't have as you said the chance to kill as many enemies with me as you would in another unit, I also like to think that I am doing my best to keep our countrymen alive, I get the feeling that you would rather do something reckless, dying without a need to only helps the enemy and weakens the defense of our Fatherland."

His friend looked at me with such utter look of disgust it was impossible for him to hide, "Sir, if I may, I will never understand why a coward like you would be made officer instead of us, me and my friend didn't sign up to take the path of least resistance and quite frankly we signed up to fight and die for the Fatherland unlike you, we only came to talk with you because we must respect the chain of command."

His friend smiled, and began to nod his head, "Indeed, we are tired of babysitting, we want to actually get into the real action, so excuse us but we must wait for our commanding officer to arrive."

Tanya walked over to my desk and asked me for the finished paperwork which of course I had done, and Victoriya had actually finished helping me review last night like I said the paperwork I needed to do was not something that I considered essential."

Without turning around she pretended to clear her throat, "Hans and Gunther, you don't need to waste my time with your little reason to ask for a transfer from the unit my childhood friend leads, I will remind you both that Karl and I hold the same rank, but seeing that you hate to work in his unit so much, I decided to authorize your transfer to another post. You two may leave and rest assured that you will be informed of your new post."

As they both left, I could feel that they were quite pleased with themselves, as soon as we were alone, Tanya looked at me, "So Karl where do you suggest we send these two? I am asking since we will need to replace them in your unit." I gave it a little thought and realized what they wanted was actually fairly easy to grant.

"I hear they believe they signed up to fight and die for the Fatherland, well I think we can grant that wish rather easily, my suggestion is that they are placed in a pillbox, that should make them feel like they have fulfilled their purpose in being here." Tanya smiled that easy to understand the smile, the smile I seen a few hundred times since we came to fight in the Rhine Theater. My friend was not that difficult for me to understand.

"I agree, they want to fight and die for the Fatherland, a pillbox in the rear defense line of our encampment should do fine for that purpose. Now the only problem is trying to resupply our observation gem stockpile, and more rifles, I swear Karl you burn through both gems and rifles at an incredible rate, I hope that my request for your new sniper rifle comes through anytime soon."


	7. Chapter 7

This is a Youjo Senki Fan Fiction Only.

The order for the new rifle my friend actually designed for me came through and it was a thing of beauty. I could not help but feel my magic sing as I loaded my first test shot, and the effects were exactly as I hoped, the rifle had a grappling hook that I could use to tether myself on any surface.

The sights made my monocle efficiency double, and while the rifle lowered my rate of fire by some degree, the amount of magic I could chamber in each shot more than made up for the difference. With my previous rifle I could fire five to seven more shots before the rifle fell apart on me but this new rifle I could fire one shot that did more damage than ten shots with my previous rifles.

The thing I been working on was redesigning our air gear, it seems the enemy had better stability on their for lack of better terms, ski looking air gear, I deduced that the added surface space of their gear offered better stability and cause the air to flow better than our own air gear.

Thanks to this grappling hook, however, this was not much on an issue for me. As long as I found a hard enough surface to serve as an anchor, there is not a single place the enemy could hide from me. The absence of the interference from Being X, however, made me think that something bad was in our future.

I could not hope to guess what he is thinking, but deep down I got the feeling that Being X is planning something and whatever it is, it would not be pleasant for either me or my friend Tanya.

So my squad was pretty much my shields, they keep an eye on the enemy and maintain a defense perimeter around me, but it was better this way because if my spells worked as intended they would not need to fight, thanks to this new rifle, I had a longer range and could use my actual magical strength behind each shot. If I had this when I was taking care of those artillery cannons from before I could have done that in less time and harmed the enemy by eliminated a lot of their troops.

This works perfect with my scouting monocle, I can really let loose and get to work for the Fatherland. **"Fire, be my blade, Wind is my arrow, from the depths of my heart I call upon thee, come forth and join together to vanquish my enemies."** As I finished saying that I felt the that my spell was ready and fired. Being X wants for me and my friend to pray, right? Well, I will pray to everything but him. That will teach him faith is something that like respect, it is not given, it is earned.

The spell went through different changes as it flew towards the enemy and someone else would have considered it quite beautiful to look at, except that you would not say that if you noticed what it was doing as it flew towards the main target, it was causing everyone in its path to suffocate, that is right, the spell someone could consider beautiful was quite literately stealing the very air from the lungs of our enemies to continue flying towards my target.

By the time it reached the center of the formation I was aiming, my monocle showed me that 300 enemy soldiers had died from lack of air alone, and when the shot hit the center of the formation it caused a tornado that immediately burst into flames as soon as it reached peak velocity, this caused the death of another 300 enemies and these included some of their mages, it is one thing to fly in the air, it is another being roasted alive while doing so.

That is when I heard his voice again, _"Once a long time ago, you were one of my most faithful, you prayed to me for your family, the people you cared about and even about a person you were once considering to marry. Now you avoid praying to me to the point that you will pray to anything except me, why my child?"_

I was not expecting this from Being X, I was in the middle of a battlefield, killing the enemies of the Fatherland and keeping my squad members safe, I didn't need this distraction at the moment. "Could you at least stop time like you often do, cause I don't need the distraction, a moment that I am distracted could cause the death of my squad and other of my countrymen."

Time stopped I guess he wants a more personal answer to his question after all. "I told you, your own commandments negate my existence, thou shall not kill, I am a soldier, a warrior, all I do either leads to or causes someone to die, therefore I am killing directly or indirectly. How am I going to pray to someone asking him to help me, to do something that he hated so much he made a law against it?"

"You consider me being sacrilegious I think of myself as being considerate. You do not have to help me do something you clearly hate so much." That is when I heard him laugh, and laugh so hard that someone else if that person was sitting on a chair he would fall of it.

" _I do not hate war, if I did so many wars that have happened would never occur in the first place. I killed the first born of Egypt, I brought down the walls of Jericho, killing all the soldiers on them, I brought fire and brimstone on armies, I destroyed two cities because of their perverse practices, I flooded the world and you think I would be offended if you asked me to kill your enemies?"_

Damn it, I had forgotten that, I spend so much time thinking of strategies to keep my men alive and the fellow countrymen that I totally forgot about those myths I read in that book. I always felt that the people writing those words were to justify their own actions, but now he mentions it, and I realize no human could do that level of destruction at least not with the level of technology at the time each happened.

" _No, I think that is an excuse much like your friend Tanya, yes, you are very much like each other it seems, it seems you simply are not desperate enough, needy enough to once again be my faithful child, to be one of my flock again, I see, I must give you reason to call on me again."_

I do not like the sound of that, I don't like the sound of that at all I fired my shot and caused yet another trench to collapse and bury another dozen enemies of the Fatherland. The enemy was retreating and it seemed that at the very least the fighting was done for today, "Alright, let's go back to camp, I don't know about you, but firing so many spells has made me a little hungry."

I swear I hear my squad laugh as I told them that, and we took off in the direction of our encampment.

At long last I could have a bit of food and rest, it is a sad thing when the stuff they serve you starts to feel like the stuff you would expect in your home, potato stew that looked like an animal ate some potatoes and threw up than anything edible, bread with more sawdust than flour and a tea that looked so pale it might as well be boiled water, wait they did boil the water right?

I was trying very hard to swallow when someone came running into my tent, yes I eat alone, trying to think and it helps if the place where I am eating is quiet, as I was saying a person came running in, either a forest was in flames, and I set quite a few acres of forest aflame so that is not out of the realm of possibility, or I was going to be given some bad news.

"Sir, the two soldiers that were transferred to the pillbox are dead." I took a drink and looked at her, she honestly looked sad when she said this, I don't see a problem with the situation, they requested the transfer to a new position and I being the kind man that I am granted their request.

"I honestly don't see why you are so upset about this, I am trying to eat and you come in running to interrupt my meal, I have reports to read, paperwork to do, strategies to write and present for future actions and you consider the worst that two soldiers that transfer out of our unit dying."

She looked at me with these confused glances and eyes that showed that she had been crying since she heard the news. When will Victoriya ever get over her fantasy idea of warfare? I guess this is part of something that made her actually the little beam of sunlight around here, so I shouldn't complain.

"The two men in question wanted to and I quote to die for the Empire, so I granted them that request, I should have sent them both in chain for insubordination but instead I granted them their request to be in a place to die serving the Empire, a pillbox in the back is there for one and only one purpose to draw artillery fire and expose the location of artillery units."

She now looked shocked when she heard me say that, how much longer am I going to see this sad puppy dog look that makes me think I kicked a puppy while I was going somewhere and then I stepped on the puppy's stomach. How naive can she be? This is war and that means we are in hell.

"So you sent them to that pillbox to die? How cruel can you be sir? These were men in our unit, our fellow imperial soldiers, our brothers in arms, did you not care they would die or died you already know that they would die when you signed the transfer orders?"

I took my spoon and looked at her, "Did I know? Yes, I know, but you fail to realize that by having four men die, we exposed the location of five artillery units, all of which have been destroyed and the enemy soldiers there killed, which saved hundreds of our fellow soldiers. I consider that to be a pretty good day actually, we saved hundreds and four soldiers died exactly the way they wanted, heroes, to our glorious Empire."

I ate a bite and I looked at her waiting for the information to finally make it through all her fantasy notions inside her mind, which by the looks of it where plenty. I finished my stew and now was just trying to wash it down with my stale tea, I sure hope they boiled the water, I really don't want the enemy to get some help from our cook, because I am sick due to them not having common sense. If this happens I will have the idiot cooks severely punished.

"So you see Victoriya, I did not assign them to die simply out of spite, I granted them the requests that they both made to me, I grant a wish and here you are giving me this look like I am the single worst monster you ever looked at. Speaking of monsters have you any reports on my friend Tanya? I happen to worry about her and her squad."

She looked at me and she said there was nothing out of the ordinary, they took down a group of mage scouts on their last missions, no injuries to report. She looked mad for some reason, well I guess she never heard about the cruel calculus of war before.

"Now I don't mind talking philosophy with you, but if I am going to do that, but since I am doing this will take some time, sit down and help me with this paperwork, I could sure use the help if I am going to discuss wartime philosophy with you."

She turned around and told me to have fun doing my own paperwork, she really was mad, I wonder if it is because I sent two men to die, or the fact that I said that I worried about the welfare of my good friend Tanya, Victoriya actually jealous over little old me? No, that is crazy, she just finished showing me that she feels like I am a vile, evil monster, right?

I began doing my reports, the reports on the rifle and continued to work on my own designs for a new fight unit, I also finished the proposal for a few quick strikes against Republic supply lines, I just finished destroying a supply base, but something tells me if they hid ammunition in a hospital, maybe they had other supplies hidden in other places, maybe a church or an orphanage.

I finally put down my ideas on how to deal with civilian targets in a military situation, I spent five hours writing none stop the justification of attacking, seizing, and destroying of civilian targets and the situation when these actions were justified, "And in conclusion the fact that these civilian facilities are being used to camouflage military supplies, arms, and personnel makes it necessary to re-designate these targets are military target. To protect our glorious Empire and our citizens we must not fall prey to such devious tactics."

I began to work on my rifle as I finished my work and submitted it through the correct channels. _"What must I do to make you say a simple thank you prayer, even for your daily substance? You didn't even say a prayer before your meals, are you that ungrateful?"_

Darn, I knew I had forgotten to do something, I threw a flower into the nearby camping fire and dropped to my knees, "Thank you, Hestia, for my daily meals, and your continued care in my safety." I open my eyes and I walked back to my tent, sat down and began to continue to do the daily maintenance of my rifle.

" _If you think I will offer a single prayer to the person that struck me in this hell, and continues to make demands without showing me any reason why I should offer you any thanks, then insanity is not limited to mortals it seems. My meals consist of gruel and stale tea, why should I thank you for that?"_

This finally made Being X stop talking to me and I could concentrate more on what I needed to concentrate on, or at least I try with this many interruptions. That is when my final interruption of the day happened and not in the way I was expecting.

It seems Tanya actually found my thesis on a nearby tray and she actually when through it rather quickly, I mean five hundred pages in less than an hour is pretty quick for most people. "Karl I have to say, I loved that thesis, I particularly loved the implication that the enemy could be using civilian locations as arms and supply depots, especially the ones hidden in churches. Being X must be furious over the idea that if implemented churches that exist to allow his followers to pray to him will be bombed into oblivion. You can skip my next birthday present, this will do nicely, very nice indeed. Do you have any idea why Victoriya was glaring at me as I walked towards your tent?"


	8. Chapter 8

This is a Youjo Senki Fan Fiction Only.

For some strange reason, I found myself with Tanya in the tent of our Commanding Officer, somehow I think Victoriya had something to do with this. Does she even understand the concept of the chain of command?

"2nd Lieutenants Sturm and Degurechaff, it has come to my attention your recent accomplishments in the defense of our glorious Empire, and also that you both receive your officer's promotion without having attended officer's training. I have put in a request to have you both receive a promotion for your actions, however, High Command feels that it is necessary you undergo officer training before that promotion is even considered."

So basically they want to take us away from the front and this is their excuse. As soon as I heard a few theories began to form in my mind, first would be public relations, they would want to limit how much exposure or bad publicity would be generated by having two people before they are even considered teens fighting in the front lines.

They probably never expect us both to survive and excel as we have, the idea of child soldiers was never very popular, not even in my previous life. The second would be a petty reason, if officers hate having two kids do more than they do, it would make their ascension up the ranks even harder.

It is no understatement to say that the time I spent with my friend Tanya in the front probably has been the most efficient and productive time of any unit in our current camp. The rifle she gave me was, for lack of a better term, a blessing. I could chamber a lot more powerful spells and at a high rate than before. It helps when your weapon does not explode after the fifth shot. This was bound to rub some people the wrong way.

The last was simple, Victoriya use her visual tactics, her sex appeal as it were, and had a whole lot of men complain about how cruel it was to have two kids as young as their own children be fighting in the front lines, when we could be doing something more age appropriate such as being sent to school.

As I think it, I will admit it Victoriya is no slouch when it comes to the looks department, and before the last incident I had with her, I imagine she pictured herself as either a potential girlfriend if not a person I would consider a surrogate sister, how naive can she be? I am no innocent child that needs protection from a harsh world, Being X makes my life hard enough without having something like this make the situation even worse.

"So in short, both of you shall be transferred to undergo officers training and shall be given a post at the base where your officers' school is located. I expect you both to be packed and ready to ship out by this evening. It has been an honor being your superior officer and I expect to hear great things from both of you in the future, dismissed."

We both offered a salute and left towards our tent. "Doesn't this seem a little fishy to you, Tanya?" I just couldn't hold back the question as we walked towards our tent.

"Of course it is, but then again I am not going to complain when they give us such an easy assignment, I know, I know, you are going to complain about you missing the chance to test out all these new spells you been thinking off. I remind you because of that certain someone we have to live to old age, and any time we can be away from where the bombs, bullets and other horrors are flying past our ears is a good choice."

I can't believe her, she wants to get promoted quickly, well field accomplishments are a way to do that, in fact, the general just told us that this is the exact reason why we are being sent to an officer training school in the first place. "So we get promoted enough so that you are the person in charge of the supply line at a base, and spend the rest of our days doing nothing but paperwork, is that your idea of paradise?"

She looked at me and smiled this smile I know only too well, the sort of smile you would never expect from someone as young as she looks, it was the smile of a person they used to call trade floor sharks, these people were ruthless, I look like a saint by comparison and I wrote a report how churches and hospitals could be legitimate military targets.

"I do, you know very well what I did before getting where I am, so to me all the paperwork in the world is better than working at a place where bullets fly, you can set your watch by the explosions and bathroom is worse than a public swimming pool, and the food is stuff not even beggars consider edible."

Well, the tents are roomy, the bathroom is spacious, the food is really not that bad, I had worse, and the explosions after a while you just stop noticing them as much. Compared to some of the places I have been deployed I am better accommodations than what I expected.

"Well, I am packed and ready to leave today, since you are in a hurry to leave I imagine you are already packed, if not, could I have you help me carry a few boxes of munitions? I only packed five, somehow I think I will need three more but between the bullets, explosives, and mines, I simply ran out of space."

She looked at me as she walked near me, "Karl, we are leaving a battlefield to go to school, not going to need all that stuff. One box of ammo for your rifle and that is enough. You sound paranoid when you say things like that, we are going to be stationed in the main base that is in the capital of our glorious Empire, we have nothing to worry about there."

I could tell her that she was wrong, that in war there was no such thing as safe territory, but I was carrying both of our luggage as we walked towards the transport station. Fine, Tanya wants to think this is safe territory, well I will leave our safety on this trip to her, see how she likes to be surprised, and if nothing happens I get to take a nap, win-win.

As we got into the cabin I placed my luggage and hers on the overhead bin and decided to lean against the nearest seat and closed my eyes, I am really tired, what the hell did Tanya pack in her bag? It felt like I was carrying an entire section of the armory for crying out loud, I think I sprained a shoulder.

As I closed my eyes, everything went silent, all I could see is black, _'At least you are not taking your surroundings for granted, tell me, child, how much must I do for you to return to being faithful to me and pray? Don't tell me you did not notice the boon of education I have bestowed upon you and your accomplice.'_

I really don't need this right now, "Look Being X, you want me to thank you, for putting me in a situation where I have even more chances to fail? And if I succeed well that is more responsibilities and tougher requirements on what the Empire will expect from me. They will educate me truly, but to them, it is an investment, and they will want to profit from it."

" _You still refuse to return to being one of my faithful it seems, I took it easy on you out of mercy, I shall have to rectify that, if you shall not offer me your prayers in gratitude, I shall make it clear how much your life depends on me. When you face difficult times from now on, remember you earned it with your ungrateful attitude."_

Being X finally left, it is bad enough the seats were hard as stone, but to have my tormentor basically take credit for something my superiors did, and then threaten me when he didn't get his way, if I remember this when I wake up, I should tell Tanya, she will find it funny.

As I ate breakfast I told her about my latest conversation with Being X, and I really wish I had not done it when she was eating, she laughed so hard she spilled her drink all over me. I guess I should be thankful for our current lousy conditions that the tea was cold, or else I might have gotten some rather nasty burns.

"So he complained like a spoiled brat about you not bending over and thanking him, you know something in my previous life my superiors never once scolded me for not praising them, then again I often did even if not asked but that was my choice, if Being X is expecting praise from me for doing nothing but cause us trouble, he needs to wake up."

I had to agree, as a career military actions speak louder than words, if I did something correctly that is simply what was expected of me if I deserve a promotion is was earned. "Well aside from a pest disturbing my sleep, are you ready to get booted off to school? Cause I got to tell you, I am not happy about this, not happy at all."

She smiled this smile I know so well, "Oh, I imagine that you being away from combat, missing your chance to blast enemies of the Empire into dust is making you sad, I know how much you simply love being in combat Karl, I have no doubt the enemy will be giving thanks to Being X that you were sent away from the front lines."

I took a bite of my bread and looked at her, "If looks could kill, I would be getting ready for my funeral, don't be that way Karl, once we are promoted we might even get our own unit, which means we will get to go much more difficult missions and the prey you love to hunt will improve in quality if not quantity."

I looked at her as I finished my meal, "I hope so, Tanya, I really hope so, or I might lose this sunny disposition I have. If the enemy thinks they have seen hell, if what you say doesn't happen, they will wish they had killed themselves when I get back."

This caused her to smile as we took the trays with our dishes back to the counter. "Thank you for the meal." I didn't even get to see the cook but that doesn't mean I would not be grateful for it, never mess with the people that prepare your food or you will pay the price for it later.

They must be in a real hurry to get off away from the front lines, they gave us our train tickets, and they even went as far as packing our bags. I wouldn't even have the rifle Tanya gave me had I not been carrying it with me when I went to eat my breakfast.

As soon as I arrived at the station, we were told we would be given a private cabin aboard the train, this doesn't sound right, something about this is making the hairs on the back of my neck stand, and there was a feeling like I should be cautious of my surroundings, a feeling that we may be in a train, but combat will happen sooner rather than later.

"Tanya told me that you at least have a pistol. I don't like this one bit, I don't see any other people in this compartment of the train, an entire section of the train just for the two of us? That is not likely, we are not high enough in the chain of command to receive this treatment, not even generals get treated like this, something stinks."

She sat down on the seat right in front of mine, "Or maybe you secretly hope that we get ambushed so that you don't get bored on this train? Come on Karl, relax, there is no need to go all paranoid on me simply because you are a combat addict."

I hate the addict comment but I can't actually say she is wrong, every enemy I kill is an enemy that will not be a threat to the Empire, call it patriotism, loyalty, or even concern for our brothers in arms, just don't call it an addiction like combat is an illegal drug I have to buy in some shady night club.

As I felt relaxed, I picked up my rifle and aimed it to the door. "Next time knock, or so help me, I will shoot you dead, and there is no power in existence that will save you." The young man simply stood there shaking, and looking terrified. I could swear I smell a scent of urine coming from him.

"Sir, I was just going to tell you both that the arrival was going to be delayed for half an hour due to some trouble they are fixing with the rails. I am sorry, you are quite correct, I really should knock, didn't mean to interrupt anything between you two, now if you will excuse me."

As soon as he said that he took off running as if I was going to chase him down and kill him. Tanya finally stopped pretending that she was awake, "See, told you, you need to relax and stop thinking that this is a trap, a low number of passengers can happen when a nation is at war."

She looked at me and began to sit down with her hand touching her chin, "See what are you being paranoid caused? You scared that poor kid, and now he will go around saying that we were going at it like a pair of animals in heat, I can practically hear the rumor mill screaming that we are supposed to be in a relationship."

I seriously wanted to get back at her for that relationship comment. "Well, it wouldn't be much of a rumor since we really do have a relationship now don't we?" This made her looked like she was shocked one second, blushing the next and finally settled with this glaring look.

"What? It is not like I said anything that is not true? We grew up together now didn't we?" She finally began to laugh and I guess she never put too much thought into that. She finally sat down right next to me and she put body close so that she was resting against my side. I guess she finally decided to sleep.


	9. Chapter 9

This is a Youjo Senki Fan Fiction Only.

"I honestly don't see why you are so upset." I grabbed my bag and hers and just stood waiting for her to get off the train. She looked like she was ready to strangle a kitten, I am not kidding, she was furious and here I was holding our luggage with no clue what the hell caused this to happen.

"First you didn't wake me up, second, I overslept, and finally since I overslept my hair is a mess, granted I should not be so concerned about my appearance considering that we didn't even get to sleep on a bed, and I basically slept with you basically holding me in the most embarrassing way possible basically you spooning me."

I still don't know what the hell is she even talking about? Since when do I behave like a cat? "Well I could say this is partially your fault for telling me we look like a couple, I must have subconsciously agreed with you and so we sort of ended sleeping together as a couple. Now be honest the only reason you are upset is that you ended up sleeping with your clothes on."

She looked at me and then at the long walkway as she came to me and took her bag, "Alright, I guess I am upset that I will not be making the best first impression. So can we stop arguing like a pair that has been married over a decade and go get ourselves some breakfast? Or do you want to start the first day at the officer's school on an empty stomach?"

If this officer's school is anything like my previous life, the answer is yes to skipping breakfast, having a DI scream at me on how much on an utter disgrace and failure I am with a breath that could make a mutt throw up is not what you need after eating a big breakfast.

We finally got to the training facility, and now I am regretting not eating breakfast, this is more like college than what I expected, no, I am not kidding, classroom, building, cafeteria, a gym, and even a shooting gallery. I am loving this, I can go to that shooting gallery in my free time so I can continue to work on my ballistic magic.

"Could you please try and not smile so much? You are making people around us worry. You look like a psychopath that was just told he got a license to kill and a week-long trip to Disneyland, what is making you so happy?"

I looked at her and couldn't help but to smile, "That I will not get rusty while learning things I probably already know." That is when she realized something as we walked by another campus map and she could not help but to shake her head apparently.

"So they got a gym and a shooting facility, that is why you are so happy, even when I can hear your stomach growling like that, I told you, you should have at least had some flapjacks but did you do that? No, you did not."

I looked at her and smiled some more, "Maybe what I wanted to have for breakfast is you."

She punched me right in my gut, made me bend over from the sheer pain and when I was she flat out kissed me right there at the entrance to the very building we had to enter for our commencement ceremony.

"Then you should have woken me up early, our seat was cramped but I could have worked something out if you told me you wanted something like that." Alright, this is clearly revenge for me embarrassing her. She once told me that in her previous life she was a salaryman, well, she sure doesn't behave like one in this one.

As we stepped in we were faced with the realization that there were only fifty students, and apparently, we were the only ones that had ever actually seen combat cause they look so innocent I think I am getting a cavity just by listening some of them speak how wonderful serving in the military is going to be.

"Welcome, you men and one lady have been chosen due to your achievements to undergo training and receive the education to serve our glorious fatherland as officers in our military, now granted most of you come from several locations, but I believe that each and every one of you will not fail to do your best for the Empire and for our beloved nation."

"Your classes will consist of morning physical drills, followed by classes, and after those classes you will be free to take time and take care of any personal necessities, in the evening you will have another class and a drill before going to bed, do you have any questions?"

I just had one question, I know this is going to make me sound crazy but who cares, I just need to know, "Can we that shooting gallery, are there any limitation on the magic we can use, and limit on how much ammo we can use per day?" He looked at me and then at the class.

"If it is in your free time, yes, you can, and will use it during your morning drills at least once a week, no magic that can cause harm to a large area, and no limitations on ammo, we got more than enough of it, and if you manage to run out, we can get more, there is even material for you to make some."

Why is this officer smiling at me like that? As today was the day we arrived we were told where our domiciles were, and wouldn't you know it, we had to share the room with someone else, and I know Tanya will complain yet again, but they decided to stick both of us in the same quarters again.

Maybe it is because we are almost the same age, or maybe it is because we grew up together, but be as it may, we live in the same quarters and she will complain yet again about my supposed snoring like she is one to talk about snoring.

Two twin beds, two desks, a large bookshelf, and one toilet, there was a communal bathing area at the end of the hall. Guess this means that Tanya is not the only lady that will try to become an officer.

As we made it to the cafeteria, she just wanted a cup of coffee, I wanted some breakfast, or I am liable to kill someone. I took my tray and stood in life, waiting for my turn, dear god, I never met a woman who had more muscles than the old DI I used to know and he was a guy who went to the Olympics for weightlifting.

"What will you have?" I looked at her, told her bacon, eggs, toast, and a glass of juice. She told me bullshit, and instead gave me an omelet, side order of rice, fruit salad and a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice. With the way she looked she could make that orange juice by just closing her fist, I am not dumb enough to argue with her. I told her to thank you and I took my food to a nearby table.

"Well, aren't we getting special treatment? You know Hild doesn't do that just for everyone you know. You might want to be careful there new guy, I think she fancies you." I am simply too hungry to argue, I just began eating my food, and no I didn't say grace, Being X knows exactly how I feel about him.

Well, the food was great, the people talking about how that muscle-bound lady did something she apparently has never done before and how also it has never been seen that two students of the opposite gender were assigned the same room. I honestly hope these idiots get their gossip over with as soon as possible, if I want them dead, if Tanya hears any of it, these idiots will wish they had died in their sleep.

As I looked next to the once vacant seat, I realized it was too late, "Honestly these guys gossip as much as if they were housewives. They never realized that the food lady is actually Victoriya's mother and she in fact only did that to thank you for keeping her daughter safe in the front lines."

"What? I was hungry too. As for us shacking up? Well, I don't care. Idiots like these take care of themselves once we get our assignments, I am picturing these idiots being assigned to lead a unit in the front lines."

If they are lucky that will happen sooner rather than later, this would allow them to earn fame and recognition in order to ascend through the ranks faster, granted the entire thing is also with a higher risk on their lives, but in the end, there are only two routes, the slow and safer or the quick and dangerous, in order to gain something must be lost, nothing is ever free.

As I finished my meal I decided since today was a free day, I would take my rifle from my closet and take it with me to the shooting gallery, I needed to make a few adjustments and modifications to my trusty friend.

I went to the work table and sure they have everything we need to modify, repair, and even chamber new munition if needed. I finished cleaning my rifle, adjusting the sights, my monocle was also cleaned and realigned, and I began to work on my latest project, a new type of bullet.

This bullet featured a crystal that was encased in a full metal jacket, I began to touch the bullet with my blood and everything was going as planned. I began to fire some minor fire spells at the targets, the spell hit and sure enough the new bullet had a much finer control than the old ones.

I began to concentrate on my monocle and I also saw that Tanya was having a hard time, right through the wall in the area behind the shooting gallery, Tanya was apparently being pestered by several young men, who by the looks of it was getting a little grabby with Tanya, and she did not look happy about this, she was outnumbered.

I put a shock spell in one of the bullets and aimed for the feet of the fools who were trying to molest my good friend, Tanya, without even thinking about it I aimed and fired my rifle. The spell hit the wall, went through the bricks leaving them intact and hit the ground where the fools were.

They all screamed something close to bloody murder and promptly fell unconscious. Seeing that my good deed was done, I began to concentrate on my project and enjoying my time at the shooting gallery trying new spells with the new ammo I just invented.

As my free time came to an end I walked out and headed towards my next class. I had no idea that someone was keeping an eye on both of us and as soon as I got to where Tanya was she gave me a hug, what the hell brought this on?

"So you also noticed that we are being tailed? Well if I noticed it, I should know that you would too. Do you happen to know what happened to the guys that were trying to force me into giving them shall we say a more intimate meeting that I was willing to provide?"

I walked towards the classroom and simply smiled at her, the minute she saw my smile she began to laugh, "I should have known better, you were keeping an eye on me with that monocle of yours weren't you? What would Victoriya say if she knew what you did?"

I opened the door and for a second I was a little upset at the mere mention of her gossiping, "I would think she would be proud that a bunch of men did not get to insult or assault a young lady in what appears to be such a horrible manner."

We walked to our seats, which were right next to each other, I was still carrying opened a book and began to read it. I needed to go over something things while we waited for our instructor and fellow classmates to arrive, well I know a group that is in the infirmary, but the thing is I don't feel one bit guilty.

"If they can't handle such a weak shock, they should really reconsider being in the military, the enemy will not be as merciful." She looked mighty happy for some reason. "Or it could be that you were, in fact, jealous over little me. I don't know why you would react that way, it's not like we are dating or anything."

I really hate that about her, "Then consider me an overprotective surrogate brother if the idea of us being seen as a couple bother you so much, now excuse I need to go over the ethics portion again for our next lesson. The last thing I need is to look like a fool before our instructor."

She laughed as she took my book from me, "Oh, like you need to go over ethics and command responsibilities, the only reason you don't want to look like a fool is that you would need to remain here for longer, and you would miss time doing what you love best."

I grabbed my book from her, still trying to pretend to be cute I see. "I don't deny that keeping our nation safe from invasion is one of my joys, as it should be one of yours. We have a duty to defend the Fatherland as you should well know. Now enough with the pointless discussion, and let me read about this section."

She leaned closer to me, "What section has you so worried?" I told her it was the section on how to deal with the consequences of failure and who would receive a much-deserved punishment. She laughed and she sat on her chair after I finished reading I went back to clean and do maintenance on my trusty rifle. Never go anywhere without it.

This rifle was as much a trusty ally than any person I know. I was just finishing cleaning the parts when our instructor came into the room, he just walked to the form of the class and didn't even mention me cleaning my weapon and putting it back together by the time he was ready to begin teaching class.

"I see some of you want to keep busy that is good, idle hands tend to cause trouble. As for trouble, we had a report that half of our class has been admitted to the local clinic for minor electrical shock and burns. Karl kindly put your weapon away, I got a question for you since apparently, you think you are pretty good in this subject."

"An order was given to deal with an enemy battalion on a hill? The mission fails, who is responsible and will be punished for the failure?"

I began to think of it and I realized something is missing in this scenario. "Excuse me I need to know who gave the order and who made the decision that leads to the failure. Without this information, I can not make an accurate judgment call."

He looked at me and smiled, "Very well explain the different judgments based on all possible outcome that leads to the failure. What would it matter who gave the order if the outcome is still the same?"

I looked at him, "Because depending on who gave the order the responsible person might be quite different, if the order was given by a low ranking officer, then that officer is responsible, but if the order was given by a higher ranking officer and that order had incorrect information, then the higher officer is responsible, and if the men that went to fight the enemy ignored the order for their own safety then it is their responsibility. Punishment may vary depending on the outcome."

The instructor began to clap, "Well that is a good answer, sit down, and why aren't you all coping that down? It could very well be in this week's exam. Now that I asked let us learn why the answer from your fellow classmate as correct."

Half an hour on the responsibility of command, as a career military like I need to be reminded that the bitching goes down, not up. I pretended as best as I could to show some real interest in what the instructor told us and finally after three lessons on ethics, regulations and military code we were allowed to go eat dinner.

"Well, we both ended up being the stars on today's lessons. Oh, common Karl, I was just teasing you, you know that if Victoriya ever decides to give you the boot, I will always help you out."


	10. Chapter 10

This is a Youjo Senki Fan Fiction Only.

If asked what I think of my first week at this place I would say it is very educational and inspiring if I was Tanya answering a high ranked officer, if allowed to speak truthfully, I would say the lessons are repetitive, dull, and with a little common sense anyone could pass the written or oral tests in each lesson.

The physical training and weapons training I consider little more than a waste of time, the real task is not falling asleep while doing it, honestly, this is so boring not falling asleep has become a sort of challenge for me. During my free time, I took the single joy I had, weapon maintenance and thanks to having access to the shooting range I found at least two things I enjoy.

One of the exercises was for me to take command of five fellow students, it was nothing too difficult all I have to do is direct them to achieve a goal our instructor told me before the entire exercise began.

I looked at the five men that were under my command and had to step on a nearby platform to set the mood. "Alright men, for today's exercise you shall be under my direct command, you will find me tough but fair, we have been tasked with collecting five bushels of wheat and delivering them to a nearby supply point. The sooner we get this done the better."

Nobody moved an inch towards the pile of wheat bundles. "You know guys this punk think he can order us around, I don't think so, here is what I think we should do. We are going to have this punk do all the work and we will just take a nap if he succeeds we take the credit if he fails we blame his poor leadership abilities."

All five men began to laugh as if they agree, now I was pissed. "By disobeying a direct order by your superior you are guilt of insubordination and possibly treason to the Empire. I would highly suggest you desist, and do as I have instructed or suffer the consequences."

Each turned around slapping their behinds and saying bite me. Without any further need to explain I concentrated on my magic and summoned my trusty rifle, without even saying a word I loaded the first round. I used magic to stand at the top of the nearby roof.

Once they heard the first shot they took cover, not that it will help them. **"Hey, you stupid bastard are you trying to kill us! We are your fellow countrymen! What the hell is the matter with you!"**

I aimed at the idiot that was screaming at me, **"As your commanding officer, I have found your insubordination sufficient to find all of you guilty of treason against the Empire, we do not need soldiers who fail to obey orders. As I gave you a chance to rethink your actions, and did not, I find you guilty, your sentence is Death."**

I aimed and began to shoot at them trying to cause them all to head towards a corner that they thought was a safe position to hide. Too bad I actually herded them in that direction with my shots, and now that they are in one spot I loaded an artillery spell into my rifle.

"Don't you think you made your point?" I didn't need to get up to realize that someone was talking to me from a nearby building through a window. "Insubordination of this caliber must be punished, and useless soldiers like this are nothing more than waste in resources, they will be hardly missed, sir I gave these men ample chance to repent from their chosen plan."

He laughed and he simply told the other men to stop hiding which they did, "That may be Karl but killing them will not be necessary, you are quite correct that their actions must be punished and I commend you in seeing that, but the punishment does not need to be lethal, you are too merciful for your good."

"These men who wish to be officers shall be made into an example, of what happens when they choose to let their selfishness and ego override proper judgment, their sentence is to spend a week in isolation, a hurt locker. Upon their punishment is complete they shall be dishonorably discharged from the Imperial military, may God have mercy upon them for I shall have none."

Upon hearing the punishment I still think killing them would have been a less painful and merciful way to deal with them. If they survive being locked inside a coffin made of metal, left to feel like they are in an oven from the harshness of them being left in the open where the sun would torture them.

These men would receive the single worst punishment in all the Empire, dishonorable discharge, this means that for as long as they live, they shall receive no aid or assistance from any government facility, no person shall hire them, and if they lie on a job application, it will be a prison sentence of ten years of hard labor.

I hate to say this but this would strike the fear of Being X into anyone, well not anyone, Tanya probably could turn this around and have someone else do all the work in prison, and still live like a proverbial princess.

"I have heard good thing about you young Sturm, very good things, tell me Sturm do you find your current classes to be challenging? Please be honest, you know what happens to people who dare to besmirch the honor of the Empire."

I looked at him as I flew up to where he was looking, went through a nearby window to look at him and I saw he was not kidding. "To tell you the truth sir, no they are more of a chore than anything else, I know regulations by heart, I know troop management and troop movement tactics like the back of my hand. These classes are boring me so badly I could kill for a challenge."

This man who is a high ranking officer simply starts laughing as I told him the best joke he has ever heard. He simply told me to come to his office first thing tomorrow and that is when I realized I spent all this time talking to the Deputy Director of the Service Corp. I don't know if I should worry that I was so informal with him, all I know Tanya at the very least will laugh.

As I made it to the room we both shared after a grueling day of dealing with idiots, I guess nobody told these brats that being in the Imperial Military was not the same as having a maids dressed in revealing lingerie sitting on their laps while feeding them sweet baked snacks, No military serve was hard and dangerous.

Today I hope at the very least I made several of them consider quitting running home to cry to the mamma. Today's dinner was a fine Irish menu, meaning more potato dishes that I had seen in both my lifetimes.

"Today I was having a blast, and no Karl, not the kind of blast you would prefer, and doing my excises, using my cute appearance and copious us of the puppy eye technique, I had those under my command become putty in my hands, they followed my instructions to the letter. How was your day?"

I can't believe I am telling her this on an empty stomach, not even death row inmates have to do this on an empty stomach, "My subordinates pretty much told me to stick my orders where the sun don't shine, and I challenge them to a fight, but since I can summon any weapon I ever touched, let's just say that if an officer had not stopped me, there would be a mass funeral right about now."

"And to top it off I spent several hours chatting with the Deputy Director of the Service Corp, and told him I found my classes to be a colossal waste of time, boring as hell, and I wanted to kill something more challenging. Now can I eat my final meal, before Herr Hans Von Zettour orders my execution for blatant fraternizing with an officer of his caliber?"

One, Two, Three, and there it is Tanya, dropping her spoon laughing so hard she is having a hard time breathing while slamming her first against the table. "That is what I love about you Karl, you always, and I mean always not only exceed my expectations but blow them clear out of the water."

"Sure, relax, I wouldn't worry too much, sure you just told him that the officer training which he painstakingly made is essentially worthless, all his efforts to educate officers a waste of time, and you found his curriculum to be so boring that you would want to kill someone or something to skip it."

She began to smile that smile I know so well, she began to pat me on my back, "Well Karl I have to say maybe he is impressed by your bravery or maybe I should say it was a pleasure having known you so well since we were both kids. Don't worry, I will write a beautiful speech and bring flowers to your funeral."

I looked at her and could not help but to feel utter rage, "Ha, Bloody, Ha, You better pray that is not the case because if it is, you will not have only Being X being a pest to you, I will haunt you till you are dead, and drag you to hell with me."

That was pretty much the end of her jokes when she finally realized I was serious, "Why not pray to Being X then if you are so worried? He might help you if you ask for his help in this?" Et Tu, Tanya. I looked at my glass full of somewhat clear water.

"Cause I rather gargle with formaldehyde, than ask that guy for any favors, you know as well as I do I wouldn't be in this mess if it wasn't for him, and any favors I ask would come at a price neither you nor I would be willing to pay."

Out of nowhere she grabbed my face and kissed me on my lips. She then sat down and began eating while leaning against me, well if the Deputy Director does not order my death, she sure as hell did if any of these men who are interested in her saw that.

I honestly don't know if she did that for that reason or why? I always believed that she hated any sort of Public Displays of Affection for PDA, but this? Not even I understand why? And I grew up with her.

Well, I decided to better keep my mouth shut, and don't say anything that can and will be used against me. I went to my desk worked on the assigned work and did maintenance on my trusty rifle.

I need to do something truly impressive that I can show the Deputy Director or I am going to be walking out of that office towards the firing squad or worse. I put all the knowledge I have from my previous life and began to think hard, I can barely think about sleeping right now.

The only thing I can think off is the ticking time bomb I have to have strapped to me when I was in the battlefield, these operational orbs tend to overheat when used against a large number of enemies, they tend to slowly become overloaded also when a mage uses spells at a high rate.

The only thing I can do is think of it as a machine, and think of how to do the task with what I have available, much like what I did with my monocle, it took a great deal of stress off me when I had another way that I can detect and target enemies without having to cast an area spell to find my enemies in the first place.

Wait, that is it, I take a normal operational orb, and divide the tasks, I built in an automatic feature to build and store magical sequences and when the spell is the same allows the spell to build up in power open casting the spell outside of the operational orb rather than inside as the mage is casting the spell.

Instead of having the power build to high inside the orb, have the spell work and construction of the spell be down inside and finish it outside of it, making the orb suffer less operational stress and control both heat and energy build up.

Sleep I don't care about sleep, I need to finish this design, I am picturing all my ideas and putting them together faster and faster, and if I slow down, this design will simply go up in smoke. As I finally put the final details on the design I decided that at least two hours before my impending doom should be enough.

I had a light breakfast, after a nice shower and brush my hair, I need to be clean and presentable, at least the coroner will not throw up when he prepared my body for my funeral. As I sat eating breakfast I had nothing to say, Tanya tried several times to ask me what was wrong, I said nothing. Right now I am so worried, afraid, or possibly terrified that I would end up saying that shoved my foot in my mouth.

I did as instructed and showed up to his office, his secretary told me he was already waiting for me to go right in. "Good, nice to see you are punctual Strum, not something I expect from someone your age truth be told. I also have to say that you have given me much food for thought since our last discussion. You can relax, please have a seat, I am having a nice cup of coffee, you might as well get yourself one, the pot is on the desk on the right."

I did and took my coffee the only way I like it, plain and black. He seemed to be rather amused by this, "Her Von Zettour, I first must apologize for the way I talked to you last time, I should have been more respectful to someone of your authority, I offer my sincerest apologies."

He sat down behind his desk and looked at me drinking my coffee, "There is no need to apologize, I didn't introduce myself, and you were having a stressful day, what I find surprising is that you drink your coffee as I do." I simply told him that coffee is best when it is bitter, it might not be as sweet as love's first kiss, and darker than the devil's hoofs but it is the only way I drink coffee.

"I see that you are carrying some papers, I initially wanted to discuss with your allowing you to teach some of the classes in the Officer training program, but it seems you have something to show me."

I place the papers on his desk, "I been thinking about my time in the front line, sir. I concluded that our units are too large for quick responses, so I felt that a smaller unit of specialized and highly trained soldiers could be used to form a quick response unit, and these papers are some ideas about possibly dealing with the constant trouble mages face with the current operational orbs."


	11. Chapter 11

This is a Youjo Senki Fan Fiction Only.

He honestly began to look at the papers, and for some reason, he looked at one when he finished reading it, nodded and continued to the next page, I didn't have much sleep so I made the papers as straight forwards and precise as possible. "Strumm you know you continue to surprise me, not something that happens to me often."

"The formation of a smaller response squad is a good idea, the only problem is that currently, the Empire has been under attack on all borders, we are in a rather situation where our troops are fighting for the survivable of the Empire. The smaller unit would need to be trained extensively, all training currently is focused on replacing dead officers and soldiers, hence why the training is as you said not that difficult."

"That is one reason I was not angry with your answer because you realized something must be wrong for the lesson requirements are so much lower than even you would expect, that is because we are focusing on numbers, quantity over quality as it were. The Rhine theater has caused more casualties than we had anticipated, and the Franco Republic is making a push to invade and capture some of our territories."

"But who would you suggest that train this special unit that you propose?" I told him I could, and with the help of my childhood friend Tanya Degurechaff, it would be easily achieved. The main problem would not be the training, it would be the operational orbs. They would require to use a much higher power range than what they use currently."

He took a page with a design on it, "I see that is why you thought of this particular operational orb configuration, I have to confess Karl this idea is not unknown to me, in fact, one of our top scientists is, in fact, working hard to build an operational orb pretty close to your idea, it is a multiple core design."

"The only reason that it has not been completed is that for some strange reason all tests end in failure, the person using the orb either can not send magic properly or he causes the orb to go into meltdown and explodes. It is truly a disappointment since if we had a better operational orb to supply our troops I could easily allow you and Tanya to form your special mage squadron."

"The only problem is that we are running out of potential test subjects, the lab has gotten a rather colorful reputation of being called were mages go to die. Funny enough your friend Tanya and you have been requested several times by the chief researcher as potential test subjects since the scientist saw the power you both generated when you killed the enemy in that forest."

"I personally am against it, I don't like the fact that I would be risking two of my most promising officers to an experiment that has claimed the lives of so many and produced little in the way of results. However, after you told me you found the demands of the current curriculum to be so low, I have made a decision young Karl, I think your friend is also thinking the same thing, except she is not telling anyone her opinion because like you nobody asked her."

"So I plan to train both of you personally, you will be instructed by me and be allowed to skip classes should you show that you have the necessary mastery of the subject, when you finish your officer's training under me you shall be allowed to graduate and receive the rank of Captain. You both then shall be assigned to go to the lab and work with the scientist developing our new operational orb, seeing that you know a lot of the mechanics and theories thanks to the detail of this proposed designs, I think you and your friend might pull off a miracle and save this doomed research project and the personnel."

I nearly forgot that the people who are in charge of this project would suffer severe consequences should the project not produce any usable results, in truth I think the Chief Researcher is the only one that will be spared should they fail to meet the expectations of High Command.

This could be an opportunity to shine and rise through the ranks much like my friend Tanya and I both want, or it could end up costing us our lives should we not make this research project a success, well no time to let myself be stopped by getting cold feet. We can gain a lot, and the future only exists for the bold. To take a risk and succeed or die trying.

"I honestly do not know what my friend Tanya would say about this, but I can tell you for myself I accept the challenge and I am eager to meet your academic requirements. I will do my best to make you proud, sir."

I was standing at attention as I finished telling him my answer, "I told you to relax Karl, you are quite astute in realizing that while yes I am a demanding taskmaster, I am before all fair, sit down and drink your coffee before it gets cold, now that the most difficult part of our discussion is over we can both relax."

"I would now ask you a few personal questions if that is alright, you see I have been keeping an eye on all the activities of the officer candidates, and there are several things I saw that made me wish to ask you to explain, for instance, while waiting in class, most people talk to their fellow students, decide to be sociable and form friendships."

He took a sip of his coffee and so did I, as he placed his cup on the saucer he continued, "You, however, Karl do not talk to anyone other than Tanya, or the one soldier that was with you at the front lines, you instead are reading a book or doing weapon maintenance. You are always doing something focused on academics, if it is not taking care of your rifle, it is reading suggested materials."

I took a sip of my coffee cup and thought about it, as soon as my cup was placed on the saucer, I looked at him, "I was not sent here to goof off, I was sent to learn and so I focused on the duty I understood the Empire wished for me to focus on. My weapon is also a means to deal with stress, I find it very relaxing taking apart my trusty rifle and doing maintenance."

"I also spend many hours in the shooting gallery, experimenting with different possible ammunition configurations, besides the training regiment for the special squad, or the operational orb, I also tried my best to find a means to prevent our ammunition from being usable by our enemy."

I looked at him and continued to drink my coffee, it seems my experiments didn't go without somebody noticing, it seems I should be more careful about how I conduct my experiments. "Now tell me what do you think is going on, I imagine you been reading the newspaper but the thing that the newspaper doesn't tell you I am going to."

"The Empire has been under attack at our borders, you saw that in two fronts, but what you don't know is that this has happened at all our borders. Now tell me young Strumm, why would our neighboring countries do that? We have done nothing to incite these aggressive attacks and invasions, what do you think caused it?"

I finished off my cup of coffee and looked at him, I felt like I was getting a test, a very important test so I better respond as if it is a test. "I could think of no less than three reasons why a neighboring country would do that. Would you mind if I use the map on the wall?"

He told me to go ahead, "First the single most obvious, they are testing the strength of the troops on our border, to see if there is any chance that our military is weaker than they expect. The second they are testing our troops to see if we had improved our military technology, they need to be able to keep up, and finally, they are testing new equipment and or tactics against our troops to see if this new equipment has gained them any military strength."

"The first would be the prelude to invasion, the second would be an attempt to steal military development secrets, and the third to promote an increase in their own military both for national security, to prevent invasions, or to prepare for war."

He too finished his cup and looked at me with a smile, "Glad to see we both think alike, yes those three possibilities had also occurred to me, be sure to inform your friend Tanya of the change of instructor for both of you and I will see you both here tomorrow morning to begin your instruction."

I could not help but to salute and tell him that while I am only speaking for myself I was looking forward to it. I was allowed to leave his office and since lunch was near I decided to meet with Tanya to tell her what just happened and how this will change our time in Officer's training.

As I went to have my dinner I saw Tanya and apparently she had a wonderful time, she sure was a lot more relaxed since I pretty much could tell people heard who I had a meeting with, and also what happened to the people that are not sitting in the metal cages out in the open, I wouldn't be too surprised that people heard them scream some rather colorful comments about me.

As I sat down right next to her, she looked at me with a smile, "You know Karl am I ever glad that I am always on your side, you actually wanted to blast the heads off those guys? Didn't look as if you were kidding from what the people that saw you said, you looked dead serious that you consider them traitors and you looked like you wanted to end their lives."

I took my glass of water, took a quick drink and looked at her, "Well it would be a lot better than what they are experiencing right now, and this is only the beginning, There are worse things than death and both you and I know it. Dishonorably being kicked out of the Imperial Military, doomed to be beggars in the streets, when people don't or will not give anything to anyone."

" They think I am cruel for trying to kill them, compared to what they will go through, death would be merciful. What you should really ask is what I talked with the Deputy Director about. I am going to tell you, but how about I do it back in our room away from the audience. Knowing you the way I do, well the things I talked about could end up making you so happy you will kiss me, or so angry that you will want to knock my block off."

"So, for now, how about if I just eat my meal, and let's keep the interrogation until we are alone." She continued to eat from her plate and pick a few things she actually liked from mine, "As it will matter anyway, these people gossip more than bored housewives, but if you think it is that important sure, I will talk in our room, but make it quick, or I will feed it to you."

Not exactly the way most people are thinking if the few people I saw were blushing. I ate my meal finished my glass of water and waited till she finished her meal, she offered me what was left of her juice and I had no reason to deny that I needed it.

Victoriya was seated across from me and for some odd reason she was glaring at Tanya, I would think she would be glaring at me after what I did today, but no, she is glaring at Tanya. This is my second life and I guess the only truth I can not deny is that as a man, I will never understand what goes on in a woman's mind.

"Well first I told him that I found the classes to be both boring and ineffective, then I told him of the idea of a special forces squad, that led to the ideas I had about a new operational orb that would be needed for that squad." She just listened and sometimes she looked a bit concerned here and there, nothing out of the ordinary.

"Then he suggested that since classes were so bad for us, he would teach us. If we manage to impress him to his standards we would get a higher rank than those that normally graduate from officer's training. The rank of Captain and when the new operational orb was completed train and command that new special forces squad. This should at least make it easier for both you and me to ascend the ranks."

Good thing she was sitting on her bed at the time, I mean she was laughing pretty hard, "Honestly Karl, I could kiss you, I guess you took the idea of nothing risked nothing gained? Well actually this works better for us, we gain a proper education on regulations and tactics from someone who practically lived it, and a higher rank, not to mention our own squad to really blow the socks off High Command with our results."

I wish I could take all the credit but honestly I couldn't, "He also said that the new operational orb was nothing knew, one of their chief scientists is working on something similar, I wouldn't be surprised that the first assignment will be to test it for them since apparently our high magic capacity will be needed, since there have been many who tried to use it, and failed and yes by fail I mean died."

"As far as kissing me, well if I understood the reason why Victoriya was glaring at you, I would say you already did kiss me several times in our last meal alone, albeit indirectly, so in summary, my attempt to as you said to blow the socks off my instructor landed us on a much high difficulty class, and the possibility for both of us to be guinea pigs. With a very nice carrot at the end should we succeed to survive the beating we will get with the stick."

She just looked at me and smiled, "I see it as an opportunity, a gamble to be sure, but an opportunity never the less, and if it takes me away from the front lines where death is practically standing on my shoulder, you will not hear me complain, I would expect you to complain more actually since this will pretty much put your out of the battlefield.

I looked at her as I sat on my bed and could not help but to sigh, "Except that weirdly I am not away from the battlefield, the battle is still happening just a different sort of battle. He apparently has been keeping an eye on us since the battle at the forest."

"He also has been watching me in my private time in the shooting range, and my attempts to create new types of ammunition. You saw that my phase ammunition works since I managed to stun the idiots that tried to get fresh with you, and my other two types of new ammo also work just not as well as the Deputy Director would like."

"I wouldn't be surprised to find that he is actually listening to this very conversation as we speak. So, all in all, I say we better go to bed and get ready for our classes and to that I say goodnight Tanya, and of course good night Deputy Director see you in the morning."

She actually laughed until she heard something like something shutting off, guess this at least proved to her that I am not as paranoid as she was thinking. All I could do is try to sleep and get ready for training, it was the same routine but with much higher stakes and much more demanding instructor, it looks like the school is about to become fun.

Well, there was an old saying that came to mind as soon as I woke up, be careful of what you wish for because you might just get it. Well I went to the room that I was told and sure enough it was the office where I met him, and sure enough, the man seemed as pleasant as ever, then mind explain to me why it is that the hands of Tanya are shaking like a leaf in the wind?

For the next days, I was put through something similar to law school if law school involved having to do Olympic style weight training for every single answer I gave to a question, and he as smiling the entire time. I was so focused on preparing for my next class, my next time doing physical skills training, then magic education, then magic engineering principals, and finally perfect my three new types of ammo that by the end of the day I was crawling to my bed.

I was feeling pain in places I didn't even know could hurt, and I could finish my meals under five minutes, I know that it was weird and some people did call me a freak while doing so, but in the end I didn't care a minute lost was an opportunity wasted, I had to be efficient if I am going to be able to keep up with everything I needed to do.

The Deputy Director was like I said always smiling during the lessons and training, but he never spoke a single word that was not telling us what to do, what he was teaching, or what we answered incorrectly, always focused on our training and education and nothing more.

Days became weeks and weeks became months, and in no time at all, we finished our time at Officer's training, I honestly do not remember the last time I sat down and ate a meal simply with enough time to actually enjoy it, or when Victoriya actually stopped glaring at Tanya. As the surviving students meaning the graduates stood in the stadium we waited.

Each was called by name to be given their new rank and certificate of completion of training, we waited and waited until we were the last two to be called, they didn't call us by the birth names they called us by Pure Silver and Radiant Gold, and once we stood in front of the stadium on that platform I think I felt what others call stage fright.

"These two young people have gone beyond any, they completed a training supervised and taught by the Deputy Director himself, the only regret he told me was that he could not be present for this occasion, it is said that everyone present received the rank of 1st Lieutenant after completing your training here, but these two have received something else, the two people before you have received the rank of Captain for excellence and determination."

"You shall receive your new posts as soon as this ceremony was over, these two, however, I am proud to say that they have been placed to work under the command of Chief Engineer Adelheid von Schugel. For the foreseeable future, they will be involved in advancing military technologies and make the Empire even stronger than ever before, so with this in mind, keep these two in your prayers and ask God to help these two brave heroes in their monumental task."


	12. Chapter 12

This is a Youjo Senki Fan Fiction Only.

He just had to mention prayers to Being X, didn't he? At some point, I think Tanya will either get used to the fact some people actually believe in that being or she will simply stop caring about it. "Tanya instead of just sitting there looking like you want to strangle a kitten, why don't you enjoy your last enjoyable meal here. I can tell you I think our food will go back to what we had in the front line camp."

She looked at me and then at her food a few times, "Tell me you are kidding? That will not go back to eat that gruel." Because field rations are meant to be last long, instead of taste good, well, I would not exactly call our rations that. In my previous life, I was taught to survive with much, much worse.

"Well just think about it this way, this could very well be our last meal. So come on, at least pretend to enjoy your food as thanks to the countless hours some people took to grow and prepare it for you."

She still was in a horrible mood it seemed and ate the food like she was told to go on a suicide mission, then again the assignment we are getting could be called a suicide mission since according to the gossip trade that is exactly what people would call it. A lot of people have gone to this lab not one has managed to return alive, a true test by fire it seems.

"You say that because you will not have to deal with the fact that Victoriya's own mother is taking care of you as if you were her future son in law." While I will not deny that Victoriya is a fairly attractive young woman, who has gathered the attention of quite a few men some even slightly older than she is, right now I am more worried about where we are going.

"So that is the reason why you are eating this meal like it is your meal before your execution. Don't worry Karl, we made it this far, and I will not let Being X get the best of me. I know you are too stubborn to be any different. Do you really think this is the best food we will ever eat?"

I looked at her and simply told her to remember the food at the orphanage, remember the food at the camp on the Rhine Theater, and sure enough she remembered and did not say a single word against the food she was eating. Two hours later we boarded the train, why two hours? Because we both had a second plate of food.

Now on the train to the most infamous lab in the Empire, I am beginning to wonder why has that pervert been quiet for a while now, I mean not that I want to hear the constant complains of Being X but usually I hear him even when I don't want to. Something is happening here, something that is so big that it is keeping that bastard's attention.

I know the Deputy Director sent my designs of how I would improve the operational orb to that lab, but this engineer, this particular scientist is well known to be quite the Prima Donna, the funny thing is he is an atheist, so naturally he wouldn't say he is the gift Being X gave to the world.

As we finally reached our destination, we went to our assigned room, there is a shock, the rooms were made from an old horse stable, I wouldn't be surprised that the bathroom is a bucket, and the bed is hay. As we both walked into the room it turns out I was wrong, completely wrong, the room was furnished but the only thing they forgot is that two people are going to live in this room, and there is only one bed.

"Well it looks like I will be sleeping on the floor, great, hand me that pillow and will you Tanya?" I was ready to put down a towel on the floor when she grabbed me and pushed me to the bed, "Don't even think it, you have seen me bare buck naked so many times, you probably know where I have my birthmark."

"So shut up, grab this pillow, and go to sleep, we are going to start our work as lab rats tomorrow, and you need to be rested or else you will make both of us too tired and you will end up causing my death, you wouldn't want that now would you?"

Damn it, she is right, I wouldn't want to cause that, but did she have to say it like I am some sort of pervert? I tried to get to sleep, and I mean I really tried, it never is easy with Tanya being stubborn and always sleeping wearing nothing at all, I know she is supposed to be like a sister to me, but damn it, I am a guy.

I turned away and tried my best to fall asleep, it seems I finally managed it, I was dreaming about a place high on a mountain, who builds a city upon a mountain like this? It almost feel like something from ancient Greece, well at the very least I am not wearing a toga, I saw several people that waved at me as the walked by.

Well at least the city is friendly enough, why am I dreaming of this place? Why does this place seem familiar for some odd reason, and just when I was going to ask someone I woke up because someone was pulling on me. I woke up thinking that Tanya was trying to wake me up because our room was on fire.

Nope, there was no fire at all, she was pulling off my shorts and for some odd reason the second I saw her she kissed my lips in such a passionate way I think she actually explored every inch of the inside of my mouth with her tongue. She was still trying to get my shorts off and when she finally did she looked at it.

One look and she was giving me a blowjob that I haven't even seen in porn, and she really was going at it with total abandonment, and finally when it was standing like a flag pole, she began to ride me cowgirl style for I don't know how long, she grabbed my hand and put it on her tits, and kept asking for more.

Well, this is one dream I will not soon forget, cause this is a dream right? Well since it is a dream I decided to take charge and flip her so she was with her back on the bed and I began to screw the living daylights out of her, went through six different positions and she would just keep asking for more.

In the dream, I finally fell asleep, which means I would be waking up, right? Well, I finally got off the bed, and realized two important things, first Tanya was holding me closer, second the smell of the room, and she was still asleep with the look of a woman that did what I thought was a dream.

"Now I know for certain why those nuns were always looking at you with that perverted look on their faces, Karl I don't care if they think this will cause us both to be damned to hell, but I never, and I mean never had sex so satisfying like that in my entire life, both of them. So you better listen and better listen good, you want to marry some other girl, that is fine, but I am always going to be your main wife no matter how many women you add to your harem."

Harem? When the bloody hell did I say I would have a harem? "Since when did I say I wanted one in the first place?" She looked at me with that sly smile of hers and rested her head on my chest. "Trust me, Karl, after experiencing that gift your have between your legs, they are not going to give you a choice in the matter. As for harems they are not that uncommon in the Empire, they are considered proof of a man's masculinity, many high ranking officers, in fact, have one."

"Could we please take a shower and get some breakfast, before we have to report to our post? Or you do want to be late for work?" She said as long as I took the shower with her she wouldn't mind. So you guessed it, we ended up going at it in the shower of our own room, if she doesn't control herself she might end up getting pregnant, and this is something we shouldn't do when the equivalent of World War I was about to start.

As they reported for duty, something began to make sense to me, why was Tanya always angry when some other woman would flirt with me, why she was always concerned about my well being, it seems my childhood friend and girl that I grew up with was having the same feelings I did, and something made her react like she did last night.

It must have been something important, something she could not ignore because as far as I know, we were doing our best to keep our hormones in check, but something happened last night that made both of us through caution in the wind, and just live as if our lives were about to end. I don't regret it for a second, and I know she doesn't either.

We were given a tour of the facility and the testing protocols for the experimental gear we are going to be testing, it seems the operational orb is not the only piece of equipment we will be testing, it seems my proposal of a new flight unit was heard and some of my ideas had been considered, but I sincerely doubt they will give me or anyone any credit in inventing or improving any of it.

The Chief Engineer is in a sense the very model of a Prima Donna, he could be more of a Diva if somehow he turned into a woman, his ego, his vanity, his over-bloated image of himself, but I digress, he is currently my superior and I should not speak of him like this.

"Karl Strumm and Tanya Degurechaff, I have heard good things about you both, but that will not matter here, in this lab my word is law, and progress in advancing the military might of the Empire our only goal. You have the privilege of testing my own invention, the single most advanced operational orb in existence, and the flight gear that will ensure Imperial dominance of the air."

"You both should thank God for blessing you both of such opportunities, now you have just arrived here late last night, so I don't imagine you are mentally ready, not that I expect much from you, so I shall give you today to set your affairs in order, get accustomed to the lab for you shall live here, as we all do, do not expect any special treatment."

"Why does your papers say you are thirteen instead of the obvious age of eighteen is none of my concern, you shall be treated as adults, as you two clearly are, and so you will not be given any special treatment or consideration, you shall do your duty, follow my command, or die as the failures I expect you to be, then again who can compare to a genius-level intellectual like myself."

"You are both dismissed, I will expect you ready to begin testing early tomorrow at 0600, you better be punctual if you desire to have any food for the day. That is all, I have no more time to waste on you."

We did the only thing we could, we saluted and went out of the office, we both decided that we need to have some breakfast, it seems my idea of coming on an empty stomach was actually a good idea.

As we sat down on the mess hall table we realized we were alone so we could talk without holding back, "That moron has some ego, I mean even I know you sent many proposals to High Command to improve our basic equipment, but I think that man is so much in love with himself he kisses his own reflection."

I looked at her and Tanya was clearly pissed, who am I to talk? I am also furious, "His mental defects matter not unless they get in the way of our goals, Tanya, I been thinking a while now, I had very little knowledge of the workings or design of the operational orbs, and the flight unit, I think I was influenced by someone we both know when I drew those proposals."

She looked at me, "Yes, that would make sense, I do remember seeing your work quite feverishly when you were writing and drawing your proposed diagrams, it made me and Victoriya very concerned, so you suspect that Being X was influencing you, that is something he could do."

"What I want to know Karl is why do you write in your diary that we are thirteen when we are actually eighteen? Why do you reduce our age in every document you write and even in your own diary?" I took a sip of my coffee and looked at her. I know she will consider this paranoid but I am beyond the point of being able to hide it from her, given what our relationship now is.

"I write that we are thirteen because that is intentional misinformation, in case enemy nations wish to eliminate us and gain information about us through spies, they could read the documents and even my own diary, if they do, they will look for a pair of thirteen-year-old children, and so they will never find us."

"The Empire does not publish photographs in their newspaper, both as a security measure and as a cost efficiency measure, so nobody outside the military knows our faces and our names, they will look for a thirteen-year-old Karl and Tanya but they do not exist."

She began to nod her head as she took a sip of her juice, "I see, you are thinking that far in information control, I think our superiors would actually consider it part of your duty, since even I noticed many of our victories have been changed in the way they are reported in our national newspapers. It seems you are right, the information control of the empire is not only systemic but so efficient it is practically a well-oiled machine."

I took another sip of my coffee and a bite of my food, I need to in case this next question goes badly, "Tanya, mind if I ask you why did we do what we did last night? I don't regret it, but as far as I was thinking we were both trying hard to resist any desires or urges, so why so suddenly?"

Tanya blushed and she looked at her fork, "Because even I know the history of this lab, it is said that the Empire sends troops that they want to get rid of this lab because the death toll is very high. You are probably wondering two things, what is wrong with me since I told you I was once in our previous life a salaryman, and what is wrong with you since you also desire me?"

"The answers are quite simple, Karl, I have been in love with you before we even flew our first mission, and while yes I was a salaryman, I was also very much bisexual, as I was reborn a girl, that remained the same cause it is my very nature, and you only have known me as a woman, so it was natural for us to fall in love since we know each other better than anyone."

"We know our strengths, our weaknesses, and our flaws, we know each other, and since we are here and we could both die any second, I felt that if I could die any minute, I should live life as if every second was my last, so I decided to make the first move, I can't tell you how happy I was when you reciprocated my desire. Unlike most other girls I am fairly aware of my menstrual cycle and I know last night was, in fact, a safe day, so relax you didn't make a mother out of me, even if at some point in our future you do, and I will be very happy when it happens, just not during wartime."

I guess it is about time we spend some time trying to prepare for the hellish experiments that await for us at the crack of dawn, the only thing I can actually think of was looking at the result reports of all the previous experimental tests, even a beginner scientist know that they have to keep track of the experiment to be able to analyze what the hell went wrong.

Tanya had a much more direct approach in mind, use her most dreaded technique cuteness, I know crazy, and talk to the people that actually saw the previous experiments, all using the deadly technique mistakenly called the puppy eyes technique. I never met a single man that didn't fall victim to that technique.

We both went as we each planned, I went to the documents and she went to talk with people. I still think my approach is better fewer excuses, cold, hard data, no misunderstanding here if the data was collected correctly.

Three hours later I wanted to send Schugel back to elementary school, I am not kidding the idiot has terrible penmanship, to call what he wrote chicken scratches would be a compliment, at most I found that he blames every failure on human error, every single one, human error it was either he has not enough power, he was too dumb to use his power, or he failed to properly manifest a spell.

Over one hundred experimental tries and all of them he recorded as a human failure, well in a sense he is right except that the failure was the one writing this. The extremely poor written reports did tell me what basically was the test, he straps the new operational orb on someone, tells them to levitate to a safe enough distance, safe for him, and cast a spell as many times as possible.

The poor person does, and he is told to continue, the experiment ends by insulting the guy who just blew up and calling it human error and writing something that he thinks the person did incorrectly or an excuse for why the test failed.

I went back to our assigned room and slumped on the bed, I was angry, frustrated, and no means to work off this stress. Tanya came soon after, "From the way you are, it tells me it was basically blaming the victim and not the killer, well relax, I didn't have as much success as I wished, the idiots would not tell me a thing, they are terrified if they talk they will be the next to test the Beast."

"Yes, that is the only thing I got from them, they all call the experimental operational orb the Beast because they say the thing takes the people that try to operate it, chew them up and spits nothing out when it gets done with a person. So tell me, Karl, are you feeling as angry, frustrated and stressed as I am?"

I could not believe she could read me that well, "Oh fuck me." She smiled and went to hold me, "I intend to, but not tonight lover boy, tomorrow we got a lot of work to do and you are going to need that energy and negative emotions, instead I will hold you while you sleep. Don't worry Karl, I would fight Heaven itself to keep you with me."

As we fell asleep, I continued to have dreams of this city up on that mountain why does this happen to me? I wonder if Tanya is also dreaming of all these men and women dressed in robes and togas, living their lives up there and having conversations like they are just normal people.

I dreamed of two people arguing one was a woman yelling at her husband how she was sick and tired of him cheating on her, and he just telling her that he is bored. Talk about mister husband of the year, I guess this is why Tanya told me I could have a harem. This gave her control of who will sleep with me, and would also keep me from getting bored and end up cheating.

The one thing that did make me feel a bit guilty is that those women in that city were stacked, and I mean great figures, beautiful faces, hair as smooth as silk, and did they ever put those centerfold models I once had in that old calendar to shame. They don't have plastic surgery right? Cause there is no way they can have bodies like that naturally.

I tried to peek at the figure of the very angry wife and out of nowhere, she slapped me hard enough that everything went black, but not without thinking I sort of deserved that. The only thing I found is that she doesn't wear a bra under that robe.

As I woke up the next morning I saw Tanya trying very hard to get me to wake up, we both took a normal bath, meaning no morning aerobics while we took the shower, a light breakfast, toast, juice, and a piece of fruit and we went to the testing site. I told her what I found and for some odd reason, it didn't even bother her. She just said concentrate on making it out alive, and I could make the damn thing work I get a reward.

OK, I went from angry and frustrated to motivated in less time it takes for her to get dressed in the morning, they trapped the orb to my suit in a sort of breastplate, and they put on my back an easy to deploy parachute just in case I got to live long enough to use it.

You really have to give credit to these guys, those words really made me feel relaxed about the entire experiment, of course, I am not serious about this, I could imagine the look on the faces who actually died testing the Beast.

"Alright I want you to use a standard levitation spell as many times as possible, just keep casting the spell till I tell you to stop, don't hold back I want you to make it as powerful as you can." So the levitation spell was the spell they wanted to use for the test, it was not used to levitate them high enough to make sure the lab clears the blast area.

We did as told and sure enough, we went up in the air rather fast, and after seven minutes the thing began to send this crackling noises and the thing began to smoke, like the fuse on a stick of dynamite, "Tanya descend, we have to get to the ground and fast. The thing looks like it is short-circuiting."

I don't care how much he tells us to continue once we were about fifty feet up in the air I told her to take off the orb and throw it as far as we could up in the air, we used the few seconds to cast an augmentation spell and a force absorption spell. She used the augmentation on us and I prepared the landing zone.

We threw the orb as hard as we could and as we fell towards the zone I prepared the orb exploded in a massive fireball. As we looked at where the fireball happened and we waited to be picked up by the test medical personnel, I came to realize this is why they said the Beast does not spit anything out, the fireball cremated the test subject in the other experimental tests.

As we were helped to stand, and the medic checked for broken bones, we went back to towards the lab, "Karl, Tanya I gave you direct instructions to continue casting the levitation spell, you made the test fail for failure to follow instructions." We both stopped walking and Tanya was pissed, and I mean as angry as I ever have seen her get.

"Sorry to disappoint you doctor, but you will have to excuse us if we didn't want to be cremated by your ticking time bomb you strapped to our chest, now don't think of it as a failure, the way it is right now it makes one hell of a grenade. But an operational orb that only functions for seven minutes before it blows up is garbage."

I looked at her and saw I better keep quiet, "How dare you, the multi-core operational orb is a revolutionary invention, it will allow manifest spells faster and with more power than ever before, how dare you call my invention garbage, do you have anything else to say? An apology would be something."

He sure didn't know how to read a person's body language, she turned around and looked at him, the poor idiot did look like he was expecting an apology, "Well you are right I should apologize to the garbage, no battle ends in seven minutes, and that piece of junk will end up killing us faster than the enemy."

She decided to leave before she said what she was really wanted to call his precious experiment, I think Bovine Feces, would be the polite way to say what I think she wanted to call it.

"Karl I honestly do not know how you can stand that woman. You must have the patience of a saint or you are the most masochistic person I ever met. How do you deal with her?" I told him there were things no man could ever understand, women was one of such things.

"How about instead you follow me to the mess hall for some coffee so I can tell you what my observation of the orb was during the experiment, come on Doctor, I noticed quite a few things that you would find interesting, a good cup of coffee will relax you."


	13. Chapter 13

This is a Youjo Senki Fan Fiction Only

Well for the next few days I honestly think my words fell in deft ears, because we kept trying to make this as Tanya called colossal turd do as it was supposed to, we end up using it for the grand total of seven minutes and we have to turn it off before the thing burst into flames and turned both of us into ashes.

Every time the good doctor was, of course, concerned about our safety, who am I kidding? He was too busy screaming that it was our fault for being such a pair of colossal failure, I think there were even a few mentions about how we should be executed for our failure to do our duty or for disobeying his orders.

If we had followed his instructions to the letter, you could pick what was left of us with a teaspoon. I told him each time to go over my proposed solutions to the existing observational orb, and this could help him think how to improve on his design, but of course, his own ego would not let him.

Some of the research staff even told me that he screams about how dare I tell him what he should do since he was doing this sort of research before I was in diapers. The old argument he is wiser than me because he has been doing this longer than me. I wanted to personally tell him to please go see a medic, maybe they can help him get his own skull out of his ass.

I know I usually don't swear, but this mother fucking moron is even pushing my patience to a fucking point that I want to shoot him just to see if his head is not full of shit. I am not even fucking kidding, I honestly think that this stupid bastard has a skull full of shit. I can't even go to a shooting gallery to work off this anger.

"Karl I know you want to march in and just break his neck, but we can't do that, that would be treason, and we can't die simply because you want to murder him before he gets the chance to do the same to us."

As we walked into the mess hall and she was holding my hand I swear I saw someone I was not expecting to see at this particular secret lab and testing grounds, Victoriya was actually eating some food when we both walked into the mess hall. She honestly looked like she was eating while being in a sense royally pissed off about something.

She was wearing the uniform of a staff member, and this made both of us wonder what the bloody hell was Victoriya at such an infamous laboratory? We sat down in front of where she was seated and I swear I heard something that made me worry for a second. "So the woman who is trying to steal my man finally shows up."

"I have to say Tanya you gave me this wonderful act pretending you didn't have any feelings for Karl, but the second you are alone with him, you behave like the fucking slut you are and get him to fuck your brains out when I was not even near him."

Tanya was sure not expecting to hear this from her, neither was I for that matter, "Look, you have it the wrong way, I always had feelings for this oblivious moron, I just could not express it because people think of us as siblings. So when we got here and I heard there was a very good chance for both of us to die, I said to hell with it, if I am going to die testing some piece of shit gear, I might as well be able to tell him how I feel. Live a little before we both fucking die!"

She finally stood from her seat and pointed her finger at him, "Don't give me that bullshit, you were not that good at hiding it when you asked me to help you prepare him a meal that one time, you took advantage of the situation, how confused he was, and by Aphrodite, you knew I was in love with him."

"The only reason you even got him to screw you was that you showed him a moment fragility, a moment of femininity from your usual tomboyish attitude. I prayed to God, I prayed to everyone I could till I prayed on Aphrodite to reunite me with my true love. That is when my application to be an assistant to this base finally was approved."

"What do I see after I ate my first meal here, my true love holding hand with the bitch that is trying to steal my man from me. And you Karl you look like you are wondering why I am like this, what woman wouldn't be pissed to see this, after all the rumors I heard about you and this bitch?"

"I know there is kindness in you, Karl,, I seen it, when you burn through all of you anger and all of your hate, the hate you keep hidden when you put on that mask, I can see the real you, the one that knows pain, the one that has been hurt, the one that is compassionate even with those that least expect it, like me."

"I was scared shitless in the Rhine combat zone, I started drinking to get over it, but what did you tell me? That the stuff was poison, you carried me to my tent on your back, and I felt like a little girl again being given a piggyback ride, you placed me on my bed made sure I was covered that I was not going to get sick, and told me, a cute girl like you shouldn't drink that poison, it will kill you."

"The concern, the worry, the way you spent time to make sure I was alright, made me love you, but she was always near, and I was too embarrassed to say it out loud, while she was near I could never tell you, how much I love you, but that is the thing when is she ever away from you?"

She punched Tanya as she was walking near her, "This bitch was always near you, how could I fucking tell you when I had no chance to. So I prayed for someone to let me tell you, for us to be reunited, and what is it that I hear the second I get to this place? You and this bitch screwing like a pair of animals in heat."

She finally stopped trying to punch Tanya and simply began to sob, "You are wrong about Karl, he never burns through his anger, his hate, as you said, he only is angry and feels such hate because he is kind, he hates seeing the people around him suffer needlessly, he is angry that it doesn't seem to ever end, and he has been the love of my life longer than you will ever know."

"As for me sleeping with your man, you finally got the guts to tell him how you feel, as for me taking your man, hate to break it to you, but this guy has more stamina than a pack of racehorses, me taking him from you? You know I don't mind actually sharing. In fact, I told him he could have a harem, so get over this and you can be in it, no reason why I would say no when there is so much he has to share."

Just as she finished saying that they both hugged and began to laugh so hard it was almost shocking for me to see, one minute they behave like they are ready to rip each other's hearts out, the second they are laughing and holding each other like they are each others friend. "Can I please have some eggs, some bacon, two slices of toast and a mug of orange juice?"

I looked at the cook who was behind the counter, "You know we got none of that fancy stuff here, you get your girts, your glass of water, and your piece of K-brot, like everyone else, well anyone except the chief engineer. Don't worry, I am thinking the same thing, been married for longer than you were alive, but I am thinking the same thing as you, I will never understand women."

I took the food and went to the table and began eating breakfast, I need to eat something to get ready, today is the big day, apparently, the staff told me that the doctor had a breakthrough, I asked the guy if they somehow managed to pry his head out of his own ass? This made several men around me start laughing and the guy who told me the news said I wish.

Now I am eating this stuff and reminded of what I ate out in the war-zone of the Rhine, "So I get to eat this today as a farewell and a reminder of what I should expect all my breakfasts to be from now on. Well might as well follow the old advice, SUAEI, Shut up and eat it. I finished my breakfast but who would come right in the mess hall, but the crazy scientist himself, the source of all our bruises and anger.

"Well I see you at least have the foresight of eating a healthy meal, good Karl, you will need it, today you and that beast of a girlfriend of yours will test my crowning achievement, the operational orb that has cost me blood, sweat, and tears, I even designed one special for you and one regular for that she-devil."

I took a drink of water and looked at him, "And it is not even my birthday, thanks Doc. Did my proposed ideas help at all?" He began to laugh like an absolute maniac and began to walk out of the mess hall but not without muttering oh they did, and boy did they ever.

I am not happy to hear him say that, sounded more like sarcasm than anything, and the way the staff gave us new armor to use with the test orbs was not making me feel any better, usually you wouldn't need to do this major of a change to a soldier's uniform, the observational orb was always carried by us as a pendant, so physical armor was always on the light side.

These new things they told us to wear were closer to armor rather than being part of our usual military uniforms. The feeling of it was closer to chain mail if not Kevlar. The parts of the flight unit were smaller almost like they were built into our boots, almost like they replaced the sole of our boots with magic emitters.

As we were about to take off Tanya came close and gave me a brief kiss on the lips, I guess for good luck and if I didn't know any better to make a certain person who was watching the test angry, those two say they have no problems with sharing, but the way they act made me feel like they are contradiction themselves with their actions.

As we took off into the air, he told us to go as high as possible, we could not disobey so we decided to do just that as we reached the highest altitude that we ever reached, I began to feel the operational orb begin to shake this was not good, the orb was getting overloaded because we pushed it too hard and too fast.

I looked at my operational orb and that is when it hit me, the orb was strapped inside of my armor and I could not touch it to turn it off or take my armor off to throw it if I attempted to do that I would never survive a fall from this height. **"I had a vision, a way to improve my own invention, in a vision God told me, to have faith in his works, and to tell you that we should all trust in God's mercy, pray for a miracle and it shall come, it is the only way for us all to survive, through our faith in our God."**

I don't need to see Tanya's face to know that she is furious, **"Doctor you are a man of science, if anyone is supposedly an atheist it should be you. Pray to some absentee father figure you must be overworked, so much so that your mind is clouded by such nonsense."**

She kept trying to take off her armor and throw her operational orb before it blows up and incinerates all of us. **"You should trust in God Tanya, as I have, you shall see the mercy of the Lord, pray and you shall see a miracle, pray and you shall survive even worse thing than what you face now."**

Without wasting a second she looked at the sky and took a deep breath, **"I rather die than pray to that miserable fake, you hear me Being X, I will not give you the satisfaction, I rather die a thousand times than to pray to you!"**

The sound coming from the orb was becoming louder and clearer, the orb was getting ready to overload, and that is also when it hit me, for the first time in my entire life in two lives, in fact, I found someone who truly loves me and wishes for my happiness even before her own.

I found someone I would happily be with for the rest of eternity, but because of this crappy operational orb, a scientist turned cult member, and this ridiculous situation I was about to lose someone this precious to me. **"God! Heavenly Father, Whatever you wish to be called, you will cause me to lose someone I love over this, over the fact that you wish to force us to pray to you."**

" **How can I pray to some worthless, pathetic coward like you. You can't motivate us through actions, you have to force us! You miserable spineless worm, stop hiding, if you are going to take my beloved Tanya from me, come and face me like a man! All-powerful my ass, you are nothing more than a fucking cowardly chicken!"**

That is when a voice was heard unlike the one that I usually associate with Being X, this voice sounded like a proud, and confident adult man. _"Honestly Karl my son, I know that you are upset that I could not speak with you for such a long time but there is no need for such language."_

" _You know another God of another pantheon actually receives your message, I haven't heard from you or your sister in years, I honestly thought that you two were doing so well that it was the reason why you didn't call me. What is with that look? Come on son, you can always talk to me? What is the matter?"_

I can't believe Being X is acting like this is the first time we met, and acting like he has nothing to do with our current situation. _"Alright Dad, I can play along, first off you kiss us and force us to reincarnate in this place, then you tell us if we don't die of old age we are through, and then you have done everything in your power to force us to worship you after you did all this to us."_

" _Never mind that thanks to you we never got adopted and we are forced into this situation, and even when we are close to dying you still want to force us to pray to you!"_

I honestly didn't hear a sound after I was done explaining everything, then out of nowhere lightning struck the operational orbs and they began to shine like they were made from the sun, golden light came from them. This is not something I would expect from Being X, maybe this person is a different person altogether. I need to ask.

" _You repaired these things that were about to explode, that is not like you Being X, who are you? Somehow I get the feeling that you are not the usual Being X I have the displeasure of hearing."_

That is when we were teleported into the city that I was dreaming about, in front of a throne room and one older muscular man wearing a toga, and a crown, seated on a throne came towards me and Tanya and hugged us with tears in his eyes.

"You do not need to worry my children, I have repaired those items that nearly caused you harm, you wish to see me, here I stand, I am your father, many people call me many different names, but my name is Zeus, and you both are my beloved children."

Zeus, the God of Justice, the one that wields and can throw a lightning bolt, that Zeus, "What when you say children, you mean as in a heavenly father figure that we are supposed to worship because our species was created by you right?" I guess Tanya had the same question that I did.

"No, Tanya, Karl, when I say you are my children I mean I am your father, you two are children of my blood and I mean exactly as I said you two are my beloved children. Now let me see your memories so that we can resolve this situation." He put his hand on my head and another on Tanya, for some reason him touching my head made me want to smile for some reason.

As soon as some time has passed he opened his eyes, "I see, I understand what is going on here. **Hera how dare you to do this to my children again, it was not bad enough that you did this to my son Heracles, but now Tanya and Karl. Show yourself this instant and you better have an explanation for this atrocious acts, come now, or so help me I will force you to appear."**

Two people one wearing a toga a man with deep red hair and a woman with long black hair wearing a crown and a rather revealing robe appeared. "There is no need to shout husband, if they are here I say our plan was ruined, you have no reason to be angry, but I have plenty of reasons why to cause them pain as you caused me misery by shamelessly cheating on me."

"I never actually caused them any harm, I may threaten them to get back at you, but their lives were not in any danger. I just caused them to come back to our dimension as they should have been long ago. You spend more time thinking of them than on me or Aries."

He walked over to her and handed her what looked to be the operational orb, "No harm you say, wife, then explain why this thing was set to burn them both to ashes. Explain the fact that you tried to force them into worshiping you, and that you told them if they do not die from old age they would seize to exist when you know demigods do not die without being reincarnated when killed."

I think the red-haired man is Aries, and the black-haired woman wearing the revealing robe is none other than Hera considering that Zeus called her wife, Aries looked at me with utter look of hatred in his eyes, "You want an explanation for that, then that is what you shall get dad, she didn't do any of that. At most she caused them to be reborn in our dimension like they are supposed to."

"I am the one that told them if they don't die of old age, the two of them are done, I am the one that told them to pray for me, knowing they would do it even less so then you would never know what happened to them, and you better believe I wanted these two dead, you pay attention to them more than you do to any of your other children."

"I put her in a situation to be worked to death, and she only ended up thriving, I put this bastard in a position where he gets to go on the most dangerous work possible, combat that would kill almost anyone, and not only does he do well, you praise him for it. I hate this bastard even more than I hate her, this glory hugging, spotlight-stealing, attention keeping bastard."

"Hell, even Hades his own uncle sings praises about how efficient of a killer he is. My uncle has never even said hello to me but sings praises to this bastard, he is in a place where this blasted thing has killed enough people to make a hill, but even here the stupid bastard will simply not die!"

He walked over to me and I think his hair is on fire, **"What do I have to do to get rid of you, why do you keep surviving? Why don't you die already!"** Temperamental brat, that is what came to my mind as I heard him yell like that. "Sorry brother, I don't do requests."


End file.
